Sascha Kohlmann, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.
Researchers have shown that brain rhythms synchronise with sound to create emotion, movement and meaning when listening to music.
An international study co-authored by McGill University psychologist Caroline Palmer suggests our brains and bodies don’t just understand music, they physically resonate with it.
These discoveries, based on findings in neuroscience, music, and psychology, support Neural Resonance Theory (NRT).
NRT maintains that rather than relying on learned expectations or prediction, musical experiences arise from the brain’s natural oscillations that sync with rhythm, melody and harmony.
This resonance shapes our sense of timing, musical pleasure and the instinct to move with the beat.
Palmer, professor in the Department of Psychology at McGill and director of the Sequence Production Lab, said: “This theory suggests that music is powerful not just because we hear it, but because our brains and bodies become it.
“That has big implications for therapy, education and technology.”
The study’s publication marks the first time the entire NRT is being published in a single paper, she added.
Resonant patterns
The theory suggests that structures like pulse and harmony reflect stable resonant patterns in the brain, shared across people independent of their musical background.
According to NRT, how we hear and produce music can be explained by fundamental dynamical principles of human brain mechanisms that apply from the ear all the way to the spinal cord and limb movements.
The researchers say potential applications of the theory include:
- Therapeutic tools for conditions like stroke, Parkinson’s and depression;
- Emotionally intelligent AI that can respond to or generate music more like humans;
- New learning technologies to support rhythm and pitch education; and
- Cross-cultural insight into why music connects people around the world.
The study is published in Nature Reviews Neuroscience.
