Music, which has played a role in every human culture over thousands of years, exerts extraordinary power. What happens to our brain when we make music? Music certainly helps shape the brain’s structures and functions, influencing the perception of language, attention, and memory. The author plunges us into the ear canal, transforms us into electrical signals capable of reaching the cortex, makes us ride on the crest of brain waves, thus unveiling the mystery of this sophisticated form of communication, which is also a privileged gateway to the study of the mind.

Daniele Schön is a research director at the Systems Neuroscience Institute in Marseilles, plays the cello, and studies how the brain encodes music and how music affects brain processes.