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1.3Where Does Music Come From?1.3.1 The Brain Organ and Modularity within the Organ
Some people believe music comes wafting magically out of thin air in the form of mysterious, disembodied “inspiration.” It then presumably lodges in the skull of the composer or songwriter, who feverishly jots it down or records it on a tiny digital device, and later claims, “It just came to me in a flash. I wrote the whole song in 23 seconds.”
That’s where music seems to come from. But the musical inspiration you enjoy actually comes to you courtesy of the parallel processing that goes on in certain integrated “modules” within the fascinating neuro-computational organ located inside your head.
The brain is not a single organ but a system of organs. Brain modularity means each module has a specialized function and integrates with the other modules.
So, what’s a module?
It’s a network of brain cells, a brain structure, that has evolved to carry out some specialized function. The Canadian cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker, in How the Mind Works, describes the mind as “what the brain does,” or, more specifically,
...not a single organ but a system of organs, which we can think of as psychological faculties or mental modules.
Evidence from cognitive science, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, and other disciplines points to the existence of numerous such brain structures. Possibly hundreds of them. A mental toolbox that enables you to survive and replicate your genes in your offspring.