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Music, thanks to its strong evocative power, is considered a powerful mnemonic tool for both normal and clinical populations. However, the mechanisms underpinning the music‐driven benefits on memory remain unclear. In memory research, reward dopaminergic signals have been highlighted as a major modulator of memory traces consolidation. Over the last years, via behavioral and pharmacological approaches, we have investigated the hypothesis that dopaminergic‐dependent musical pleasure is a crucial mechanism underpinning music‐driven memory benefits. Our results show that the pleasure felt during music listening, modulated by both the dopaminergic transmission and participants' sensitivity to music reward, can increase episodic memory performance for the music itself as well as for nonmusical‐associated information. In this commentary paper, we aim to review the main findings obtained from three different studies, in order to discuss current advances and future directions in this research area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the mounting evidence for shared cognitive mechanisms and neural resources for rhythm and grammar. Evidence for a role of rhythm skills in language development and language comprehension is reviewed here in three lines of research: (1) behavioral and brain data from adults and children, showing that prosody and other aspects of timing of sentences influence online morpho-syntactic processing; (2) comorbidity of impaired rhythm with grammatical deficits in children with language impairment; and (3) our recent work showing a strong positive association between rhythm perception skills and expressive grammatical skills in young school-age children with typical development. Our preliminary follow-up study presented here revealed that musical rhythm perception predicted variance in 6-year-old children's production of complex syntax, as well as online reorganization of grammatical information (transformation); these data provide an additional perspective on the hierarchical relations potentially shared by rhythm and grammar. A theoretical framework for shared cognitive resources for the role of rhythm in perceiving and learning grammatical structure is elaborated on in light of potential implications for using rhythm-emphasized musical training to improve language skills in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes principles underlying the evocation of emotion with music: evaluation, resonance, memory, expectancy/tension, imagination, understanding, and social functions. Each of these principles includes several subprinciples, and the framework on music-evoked emotions emerging from these principles and subprinciples is supposed to provide a starting point for a systematic, coherent, and comprehensive theory on music-evoked emotions that considers both reception and production of music, as well as the relevance of emotion-evoking principles for music therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper brings together different perspectives on the investigation and understanding of temporal processing and temporal expectations. We aim to bridge different temporal deficit hypotheses in dyslexia, dysphasia, or deafness in a larger framework, taking into account multiple nested temporal scales. We present data testing the hypothesis that temporal attention can be influenced by external rhythmic auditory stimulation (i.e., musical rhythm) and benefits subsequent language processing, including syntax processing and speech production. We also present data testing the hypothesis that phonological awareness can be influenced by several months of musical training and, more particularly, rhythmic training, which in turn improves reading skills. Together, our data support the hypothesis of a causal role of rhythm-based processing for language processing and acquisition. These results open new avenues for music-based remediation of language and hearing impairment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In humans and other animals, the locomotor and respiratory systems are coupled together through mechanical, neurophysiological, and informational interactions. At a macroscopic observer-environment level, these three types of interactions produce locomotor-respiratory coupling (LRC), whose dynamics are evaluated in this paper. A formal analysis of LRC is presented, exploiting tools from synchronization theories and nonlinear dynamics. The results of two recent studies, in which participants were instructed to cycle or exhale at a natural frequency or in synchrony with an external rhythmic sound, are discussed. The metronome was either absent or present (study 1) and close to or far from the natural frequency of the cycling and breathing systems (study 2). The results evidenced a stabilization of cycling, breathing, and LRC when sound was present compared to when it was absent. A decrease in oxygen consumption was also observed, accompanying the increase in sound-induced LRC stabilization. These results obtained with a simple rhythmic metronome beat have consequences for exercising while listening to music; the consequences are further explored here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precise control of movement timing plays a key role in musical performance. This motor skill requires coordination across multiple joints and muscles, which is acquired through extensive musical training from childhood. However, extensive training has a potential risk of causing neurological disorders that impair fine motor control, such as task-specific tremor and focal dystonia. Recent technological advances in measurement and analysis of biological data, as well as noninvasive manipulation of neuronal activities, have promoted the understanding of computational and neurophysiological mechanisms underlying acquisition, loss, and reacquisition of dexterous movements through musical practice and rehabilitation. This paper aims to provide an overview of the behavioral and neurophysiological basis of motor virtuosity and disorder in musicians, representative extremes of human motor skill. We also report novel evidence of effects of noninvasive neurorehabilitation that combined transcranial direct-current stimulation and motor rehabilitation over multiple days on musician's dystonia, which offers a promising therapeutic means. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]