Brain-to-brain coupling and culture as prerequisites for musical interaction

An important cue for belongingness and identity to a certain society is constituted by music. When listening to any musical piece, the organization of the music can be processed and recognized by virtually all members of a society according to specific grammatical rules for pitch and rhythmic structures (scales, chords, meter), the preference for certain timbres, musical instruments, and performance styles. The stylistic components that determine which sound events are allowed, along with several other learned ways of making and using music that are shared by a group of people, characterize what is known as musical culture. Similarly to languages, there are many musical cultures in the world. Hence, music can be considered as a model to study cultural adaptation, defined as the process by which individuals acquire culture-specific knowledge through everyday experiences (e.g., listening to the radio, singing, playing, dancing, going to concerts, studying). The goals of this chapter are two-fold: (1) to review brain evidence on cultural adaptation to a musical system (particularly, Western tonal); and (2) to propose a new hypothesis according to which brain-to-brain coupling following cultural adaptation might be a necessary prerequisite for a successful musical interaction.