title: Predictions and the brain: how musical sounds become rewarding.
abstract: Music has always played a central role in human culture. The question of how musical sounds can have such profound emotional and rewarding effects has been a topic of interest throughout generations. At a fundamental level, listening to music involves tracking a series of sound events over time. Because humans are experts in pattern recognition, temporal predictions are constantly generated, creating a sense of anticipation. We summarize how complex cognitive abilities and cortical processes integrate with fundamental subcortical reward and motivation systems in the brain to give rise to musical pleasure. This work builds on previous theoretical models that emphasize the role of prediction in music appreciation by integrating these ideas with recent neuroscientific evidence.
authors.affiliation: Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: vsalimpoor@research.baycrest.org.
authors.forename: Valorie N
authors.initials: VN
authors.lastname: Salimpoor
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
authors.forename: David H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Zald
authors.affiliation: Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Zatorre
authors.affiliation: Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dagher
authors.affiliation: Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Anthony Randal
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: McIntosh
mesh_terms: D059031:Anticipation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004298:Dopamine / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D009146:Music; D057181:Pleasure / Q000502:physiology*; D012201:Reward
chemical_list: D004298:Dopamine
keywords: cognitive reward; dopamine; emotion; music; neuroaesthetics; prediction