Brain Wiring

This article is about how the brain is wired in general and doesn't even mention music, but it provides valuable context for where the neuroscience might be headed. A few snips:

. . . Neuroscientists are split between a traditional view that the brain is organized as a hierarchy, with most regions feeding into the "higher" centers of conscious thought, and a more recent model of the brain as a flat network similar to the Internet. . . .

. . . The Internet model would explain the brain's ability to overcome much local damage, Swanson said. "You can knock out almost any single part of the Internet and the rest of it works." Likewise, Swanson said, "There are usually alternate pathways through the nervous system. It's very hard to say that any one part is absolutely essential." . . . . 

. . . "The part of the brain you think with, the cortex, is very important, but it's certainly not the only part of the nervous system that determines our behavior." . . .