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Nature 453, 726-727 (5 June 2008) | doi:10.1038/453726a; Published online 4 June 2008

Science & Music: Talk of the tone

Aniruddh D. Patel1

  1. Aniruddh D. Patel is Esther J. Burnham senior fellow in theoretical neurobiology at the Neurosciences Institute, 10640 John Jay Hopkins Drive, San Diego, California 92121, USA. He is author of Music, Language, and the Brain (Oxford University Press — see Nature 452, 695–696; 2008 for a review).

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To appreciate how our species makes sense of sound we must study the brain's response to a wide variety of music, languages and musical languages, urges Aniruddh D. Patel.

Music engages much of the brain, and coordinates a wide range of processing mechanisms. This naturally invites consideration of how music cognition might relate to other complex cognitive abilities.

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