Sound mind

It’s well known that the brain receives information from the ears in an orderly fashion. Signals for different frequencies arrive in tonotopic order along the auditory cortex. This means high tones are processed at one end of the auditory cortex while low tones are processed toward the other end. The location where these signals arrive determines our perception of pitch [ link ]. What’s interesting is that this type of organization applies to other properties of sound as well. Synapses that quickly release transmitters provide us with information about the onset of sound, like the beat, while synapses that release neurotransmitters more slowly provide information on qualities like timbre that persist over the duration of a sound. What’s new? Researchers have found that the pathways carrying these different synapse types are not grouped randomly. Instead, like orchestra musicians sitting in their own sections, they are bundled together by the property of sound that they convey. Tonotopic organization is preserved here as well. This means that beat and timbre have their own locations in the brain contributing to the perception of sound and music  [ link ].