Development of Pitch and Music Perception

Music, like language, is found in all known human societies, past and present, and although music has some precursors that can be found in other species, it is a defi ning characteristic of the human species (Wallin et al. 2000 ) . Although the perception of music has multisensory aspects (Thompson et al. 2005 ; Phillips-Silver and Trainor 2007 ) , it is based in sound. The vibrations that give rise to music can be created by many different means, including striking percussion instruments, blowing resonating air columns in wind instruments, plucking and bowing strings under tension, and vibrating the vocal chords during singing. The boundary between sounds that are perceived as music and sounds that are not is fuzzy; indeed a defi nition of music remains elusive. However, the vast majority of music in the world involves spectral and temporal organizations that can readily be processed by the nervous system and for which specialized brain processing develops. Although the evolutionary adaptive value of music remains controversial (McDermott and Hauser 2005 ; Trainor 2008a ) , even in modern societies people spend large amounts of time and money on music (Huron 2003 ) , suggesting that it serves important functions. From a neurological perspective, music is an interesting stimulus as it activates many cortical areas, including sensorimotor systems (e.g., Grahn and Brett 2007 ; Zatorre et al. 2007 ) , memory and cognitive systems (Koelsch and Siebel 2005 ; Janata 2009 ) , and social/emotional areas (e.g., Blood and Zatorre 2001 ) . Music appears to have a special relation with movement, as even passive listening activates motor areas (Grahn and Brett 2007 ) , and the way people move can affect how the rhythm of a musical stimulus is interpreted (Phillips-Silver and