The neural localization of musical score reading

Abstract

This literature review addresses the neural regions that are involved in musical score reading and the possible overlap with language reading, in order to provide a decent overview on the scarce literature on music reading research. The reading of musical scores is a complex process in which brain areas in the parietal, occipito-temporal and frontal lobes are involved. Especially areas in the dominant parietal lobe, the fusiform gyrus and the frontal gyri are active during score-reading. These areas also regulate general cognitive processes like memory- and motor actions, including sensory-motor integration, and are probably part of a score-reading network that expands over the different neural regions, predominantly lateralized to the left hemisphere. The neural sites that are active in language reading are spatially separated from the areas involved in music reading, though they are adjacent. In order to preserve score reading related areas in epileptic surgery, presurgical electrocortical stimulation should also include a score reading task, defining the music-related areas in the dominant parietal, occipito-temporal and frontal lobes.