STORRS, CT — The brain doesn’t just process music. According to new research led by UConn’s Edward W. Large, it resonates with it—literally.
Published in Nature Reviews Neuroscience, the study introduces neural resonance theory (NRT), a model that suggests brain rhythms physically synchronize with music’s pitch and timing.
Large, a professor of psychological sciences and physics, says this resonance is what causes music’s powerful emotional and physical effects.
“In physics, resonance is everywhere,” Large said. “The heart is an oscillator. Circadian rhythms are oscillators, and they synchronize to the light and dark cycles of the earth.” His research shows the brain works the same way with sound.
NRT diverges from the long-held idea that humans enjoy music because the brain predicts patterns. While that theory frames the brain as a computer anticipating the next note, NRT reframes it: the brain’s natural oscillations lock into the rhythm of the music, creating physical synchronization—what musicians and listeners might call groove.
“This is about embodiments – physical states of the brain that have lawful relationships to external events [like sounds],” Large said. “They’re not abstract. It’s literally the sound causing a physical resonance in the brain.”
The research was co-authored by Ji Chul Kim, a UConn assistant research professor, and Parker Tichko ’19 Ph.D. Kim says NRT helps explain why music cultures vary but still share common traits: “NRT explains this nature/nurture problem in terms of natural constraints and neural plasticity.”
This biological sync is what makes people dance, remember, and feel. “Groove,” as the paper calls it, emerges from neurons vibrating in time with melodies.
Large and Kim also co-founded Oscillo Biosciences, a startup applying NRT to Alzheimer’s therapy using synchronized light and sound. “We are showing that we can cause resonance in the brain that actually improves memory,” Large said.
In redefining how the brain interacts with music, NRT may also inform AI, education, and cognitive health. More than a theory, it offers a scientific basis for why music doesn’t just play—it moves.
