ASEBL Journal – Volume 11 Issue 1, January 2015
The interesting conclusion here is that if the ability to appreciate and synchronize to
rhythms in music is not particular to humans only, then aesthetic models that do not in
some way treat with evolutionary and neurological evidence are to be found lacking.
If evidence continues to suggest deeper and larger structures that dictate at least some
human activities in continuum with non-human species, then these data must be continuously nudged toward consilience. While certainly neither totalizing nor easily realizable, such research and endeavor is key. For example, sensitivity to rhythm and
sound is a hallmark of poetry, and this could serve as connective tissue to move toward language in a related chain of possibly linked causal relationships: rhythm,
sound, music, language, song, lullabies, poetry.
A study by Fadiga, Craighero and D’Ausilio, “Broca’s Area in Language, Action and
Music”, examines the relationship between Broca’s Area of the brain in humans and
non-humans. Broca’s Area is a key location in the inferior frontal gyrus which is important for language production. But, as Fadiga et al. report, “A growing body of neuroimaging evidence indicates that Broca’s area, in addition to its linguistic functions,
appears to be engaged in several cognitive domains. These domains include music,
working memory, and calculation” (2009: 451) in addition to motor domains in the
primates studied (2009: 451). The relation to music via auditory-motor interactions is
interesting regarding Broca’s area because of its proximity to a large cluster of mirror
neurons (2009: 450-451).xvi As Patricia Churchland explains, “Mirror neurons are a
subset of neurons in the frontal cortex of the monkey [and also human beings, my
note]…that respond both when the monkey sees another individual grasp an object
(e.g. I put food in my mouth), and when it performs that action itself (e.g. it puts food
in its mouth)” (2011: 135). Advances in fMRI research have allowed the discovery of
this same neural activity in humans, and in fact the mirror neurons fire when performing an action, seeing action, hearing action, hearing descriptions of an action (Iacobini, et al.: 2009: 11-12), and have also been shown to fire when an individual reads of
an action (Aziz-Zadeh, et al.: 2006).xvii Returning to Fadiga’s study, it is important to
note that while there seems to be a correlation between mirror-neuronal activity and
Broca’s area, thus suggesting a brain-based (and thus an evolutionarilyxviii causal explanation) “these sources of information (neuroimaging and electrophysiological
techniques), although very compelling, offer only a correlation between activity of a
given area and the task the subject is performing” (2009: 452). As always in a fallible
manner, the evidence must be further weighed.
That the brain does not operate specifically in discreet modules has been roundly challenged if not outright disproven (Deacon, 1997: 157-158), and in fact, neural activity
tends to be spread through systems and areas rather than easily localized regions. As
Deacon notes, “Once we abandon the reific ][ۈو[