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  • Perspective
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Musical neurodynamics

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 26, pages 293–307 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

A great deal of research in the neuroscience of music suggests that neural oscillations synchronize with musical stimuli. Although neural synchronization is a well-studied mechanism underpinning expectation, it has even more far-reaching implications for music. In this Perspective, we survey the literature on the neuroscience of music, including pitch, harmony, melody, tonality, rhythm, metre, groove and affect. We describe how fundamental dynamical principles based on known neural mechanisms can explain basic aspects of music perception and performance, as summarized in neural resonance theory. Building on principles such as resonance, stability, attunement and strong anticipation, we propose that people anticipate musical events not through predictive neural models, but because brain–body dynamics physically embody musical structure. The interaction of certain kinds of sounds with ongoing pattern-forming dynamics results in patterns of perception, action and coordination that we collectively experience as music. Statistically universal structures may have arisen in music because they correspond to stable states of complex, pattern-forming dynamical systems. This analysis of empirical findings from the perspective of neurodynamic principles sheds new light on the neuroscience of music and what makes music powerful.

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Fig. 1: Timescales of neural oscillations and music.
Fig. 2: The predictions of neural resonance theory.
Fig. 3: Stability predictions across timescales.
Fig. 4: Rhythm and temporal structure.
Fig. 5: Consonance, melody and tonality.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Eleanor E. Harding, Ji Chul Kim.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Otorhinolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Eleanor E. Harding

  2. Center for Language and Cognition, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Eleanor E. Harding

  3. Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    Ji Chul Kim, Parker Tichko & Edward W. Large

  4. Department of Psychology, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Alexander P. Demos

  5. School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK

    Iran R. Roman

  6. Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Caroline Palmer

  7. Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    Edward W. Large

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The authors all researched data for the article, provided substantial contributions to discussion of its content, wrote the article, and reviewed and edited the manuscript before submission.

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Correspondence to Edward W. Large.

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E.W.L. is founder of, and owns stock in, Oscilloscape, Inc. (dba Oscillo Biosciences). J.C.K. is currently a paid employee of, and owns stock in, Oscilloscape, Inc. E.W.L. and J.C.K. are authors of patents owned by Oscilloscape, Inc. The subject matter of the current paper is not directly related to the business interests of Oscilloscape, and no products of Oscilloscape are discussed in this paper.

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Glossary

Anticipation

The process by which a system responds to an expected event before the event occurs.

Attraction

The evolving state of a dynamical system towards a more stable state, such as an orbit.

Attunement

The adaptation of neural circuits to the environment, enhancing response stability and flexibility.

Beat

In Western music theory, a simple (often periodic) rhythm that can be perceived within another rhythm.

Bistable systems

Systems with two stable states.

Consonance

The perceived pleasantness of a musical interval.

Critical oscillation

An oscillation poised at a bifurcation point, the transition between damped and self-sustained oscillation.

Dissonance

The perceived unpleasantness of a musical interval.

Dynamic attending

Entrainment of attentional processes with external temporal signals to focus on specific events in time.

Embodiment

A state of the brain and/or body that has a lawful, physical relationship to external events (for example, sounds) determined by physical principles. This embodied representation contrasts with the notion of a symbolic representation, in which symbols have arbitrary relationships to external events.

Enculturation

The process by which individuals learn, adopt and maintain their cultural traditions. Musical enculturation occurs through exposure to the structure of music of one’s native culture, including tuning, scale and metre.

Expectation

The prediction of events and event timing based on context and prior experience. Musical expectations are violated when unexpected events occur or when (expected) events occur at unexpected times.

Groove

Embodied sense of rhythmic movement or the desire to move in response to a patterned sequence of sounds such as music.

Harmonic intervals

The pitch difference between simultaneous musical tones.

Harmony

Two or more complementary notes played or sung at the same time. The chords that accompany a melody.

Hebbian learning

An increase in synaptic efficacy that arises from a presynaptic cell’s repeated and persistent stimulation of a postsynaptic cell. Hebbian learning in oscillatory neural networks occurs only when the neural oscillators resonate to each other (phase- or mode-lock).

Implied harmony

The (simultaneous) harmony implied by a (sequential) melody, without being explicitly present.

Just intonation

A tuning system in which intervals are tuned to whole number frequency ratios (such as 3:2 and 4:3).

Limit cycle

A closed orbit (self-sustained oscillation) on which a dynamical system remains.

Melodic interval

The pitch difference between two tones that are sounded one after another (as in a melody).

Metre

In Western music theory, nested patterns of strong and weak beats perceived in a rhythm.

Missing fundamental

The pitch perceived as the first harmonic, when the first harmonic is absent from the waveform.

Mode-locking

Synchronization in an integer (non-1:1) ratio.

Natural frequency

The inherent rate at which a system oscillates when not subjected to external forces, which is determined by its physical characteristics.

Nonlinear oscillator

An oscillator for which nonlinear processes determine the internal states and the response to external signals.

Nonlinear resonance

Phase and amplitude response of a nonlinear oscillator to stimulation.

Oscillation

A motion characterized by a stable frequency and amplitude that repeat over time, such as a sinusoidal pattern.

Pattern forming

The orderly outcome of self-organization as observed in biology, chemistry and physics.

Phase-locking

Synchronization in 1:1 frequency ratio where the phase difference between two systems (or a system and an external stimulus) is maintained constant.

Pitch

That aspect of auditory sensation that allows us to order tones on a musical scale.

Predictive coding of music

Theory that states the brain deploys a predictive model based on prior experience to minimize prediction errors, through a recursive Bayesian process, when listening to music.

Pulse

The most perceptually salient beat; that is, the beat to which a listener would tap when synchronizing with a rhythm.

Rhythm

The complex pattern of timing and accentuation.

Stability

A state or an orbit of a dynamical system is stable if the system is attracted to it.

Strong anticipation

Anticipatory behaviour in interactions with the environment that emerges owing to transmission delays (delay coupling).

Synchronization

Phase and/or frequency locking of coupled oscillators to one another or to external stimulation. Used interchangeably with entrainment.

Syncopation

The displacement of a musical accent from strong beats to weak beats.

Tonal hierarchy

The structured organization of tones in which specific tones are perceived as more stable than others, and less stable tones are attracted towards more stable ones.

Tonality

The perception of stability and attraction relationships among the pitches in musical work.

Transmission delays

A time delay in communication between neural areas, biophysically explained by long-range axonal transmission of information.

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Harding, E.E., Kim, J.C., Demos, A.P. et al. Musical neurodynamics. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 26, 293–307 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-025-00915-4

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