Let’s talk Lobes) a brief explanation of another part of the brain which helps us to understand Music. JMV

The occipital lobe receives and processes visual information directly from the eyes.  It sends this information to the Wernicke’s area in the parietal lobe, which is involved in understanding visual and auditory information associated with language, and the motor cortex in the frontal lobe (“Occipital Lobe” Np.). 

                             The temporal lobe is important in processing music. Damage here impacts our ability to appreciate music and to be able to sing.  Damage to the left temporal lobe causes the loss of the ability to read a musical score (Satoh et.al. 1844). It processes basic and complex hearing (“Temporal Lobe” Np.). When you hear sound that is just identified as “sound” that activity is in a different part of the lobe than when you hear sound you identify as a musical tone. If you hear a sound you recognize as a specific vocalist’s voice that happens in yet a different part of this lobe (O’Donnell Np.). The temporal lobe also processes auditory information from the ears and sends it to Wernicke’s area of the parietal lobe (language processing), and to the motor cortex of the frontal lobe. The left temporal lobe performs multiple language functions including  comprehension, naming, and verbal memory (“Temporal Lobe” Np.). Research has shown that this region of the brain is larger in adult musicians than in those who are not musicians. (Klarreich Np.). A study found that children with musical training had significantly better verbal memory for non-musical tasks than those without such training and retained this skill a year later. The researchers believe that music training during childhood helps reorganize/develop the left temporal lobe, facilitating verbal memory, but does not impact visual memory (Ho et al. Np.). The right and left temporal lobes communicate with each other through a tract of fibers near the rear of the brain called the anterior commissure. The front portion of both lobes, probably in concert with the cerebellum, are vital in the perception of music including the discrimination of chords (Satoh et al. 1846). A study of individuals with brain damage testing their ability to recognize changesin note intervals and to distinguish between different rhythms and meters found that loss of these abilities was always directly related to the same areas of brain damage across subjects. Right temporal lobe damage impaired the use of bothcontour and interval information in the discrimination of melodies.  The right lobe, along with the amygdala, is also involved in the recognition of timbre (Satoh et.al. 1844). Left temporal damage only impairs the use of interval information (Liegeois-Chauvel et.al.139).  Satoh (1848) found that the ability to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar melodies occurs bilaterally in the temporal lobes.  The superior temporal gyrus is a ridge on the temporal lobe that contains the area where auditory signals from the cochlea first reach the cerebral cortex  (“Temporal Lobe” Np.). It is important inprocessing melody. Damage to the auditory areas located in the back of the superior temporal gyrus impaired pitch and tempo variation processing. Damage to the front section resulted in impairment of metric processing (Leigeois-Chaevel et al.139).  Approximately 4% of the population has a condition called musical tone deafness which is a severe and life long difficulty with music perception despite normal cognitive functioning in other areas (Neurosciences Institute Scientific Report 16). This is believed to be caused by abnormalities in the right auditory cortex (The Neurosciences Institute Scientific Report 1). The hippocampus is located deep within the temporal lobe and is important for processing short-term memory for storage as long term memory (“Hippocampus” Np.) and control of spatial memory and behavior (“Temporal Lobe” Np.). The amygdala is also located in the temporal lobe; it controls social and sexual behavior and other emotions. It is critically involved in computing the emotional significance of events (“Amygdala” Np.) and is involved in processing music (Satoh et.al. 1843). It is responsible for the influence of emotion on perception, through its connections with those brain regions that process sensory experiences, and allows perception of emotionally significant events to occur despite inattention (“Amygdala” Np.).  It is also involved in forming new associations between cues and outcomes teaching us when we do something even as ordinary as greeting a friend or ordering a burger.