How Do We Recognize Songs Instantly? New Study Reveals How Humans Predict Musical Sequences

Knowing how our brain reacts to music can play a pivotal role in understanding our cognitive functions, explains one of the leading researchers behind the study, Associate Professor Leonardo Bonetti from the Center for Music in the Brain at Aarhus University: “Our research provides detailed insights into the brain’s ability to process and predict music and contributes to our broader understanding of cognitive functions. This could make a difference for studying brain health, as it offers potential pathways to explore how aging and diseases like dementia affect cognitive processing over time.”

In fact, understanding how our brain rocks along to Bohemian Rhapsody or reacts to a childhood classic may help researchers detect dementia in the future.

“In the long run, these findings could inform the development of screening tools for detecting the individual risk of developing dementia just using the brain activity of people while they listen to and recognize music.”

In the study, the researchers measured the brainwaves of 83 people as they listened to music, and they will follow up with additional studies, says Leonardo Bonetti.

“Future studies could explore how these brain mechanisms change with age or in individuals with cognitive impairments. Understanding these processes in more detail could lead to new interventions for improving cognitive function and quality of life for people with neurological conditions.”

Reference: “Spatiotemporal brain hierarchies of auditory memory recognition and predictive coding” by L. Bonetti, G. Fernández-Rubio, F. Carlomagno, M. Dietz, D. Pantazis, P. Vuust and M. L. Kringelbach, 21 May 2024, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48302-4