Humans, like other animals, often interpret sound in terms of the actions that gave rise to them. Research in music cognition reveals that there are other ways in which the mind can relate sounds and actions. This paper will illustrate two hidden connections between sound and action, drawing on cross-cultural research on relations between instrumental music and speech rhythm, and on neural research on the processing of musical beat.
About the Author
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Aniruddh Patel
Aniruddh (Ani) Patel (Ph.D., 1996 Harvard OEB) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Tufts University. His research focuses on how the brain processes music and language, especially what the similarities and differences between the two reveal about each other and about the brain itself. He has pursued this topic with a variety of techniques, including neuroimaging, theoretical analyses, acoustic research, and comparative studies of nonhuman animals. He has published over 50 research articles and a scholarly book (Music, Language, and the Brain Oxford Univ. Press), which won a Deems Taylor Award from ASCAP in 2008.