A neurocognitive analysis of rhythmic memory process as a social space phenomenon

Functional neuroimaging has recently offered the means to map the workings of the human auditory system during music processing. I propose a cognitive theoretical account of rhythmic memory brain processing on the basis of current functional neuroimaging data on music perception in the light of my own work on the brain coding of body perception. This framework allows unifying experimental evidence showing activity in brain areas involved in the appreciation of the emotional cues conveyed by music, and data showing activity in the same areas but during the perception of emotional cues conveyed by body actions. This account postulates that the human brain may code the rhythmic processing space as a social space with communicative value.