[In search of the musical brain].

Abstract

The emotional power of music opens novel prospects in the field of affective neurosciences. To clarify the neurobiological substrate of emotions brought by music, we adopted an integrative approach, which combines neuropsychology, brain imaging and electrophysiology (intracranial depth electrode recordings). The results of a series of studies carried out in patients with focal brain lesions allow to describe the involvement of different temporal lobe regions and, in particular, of the amygdala in these emotional judgments before discussing the therapeutic benefits of music to handle Alzheimer's disease.