The neural basis for this striking accuracy is probably in the cerebellum, which is believed to contain a system of timekeepers for our daily lives and to synchronize to the music we are hearing. This means that somehow, the cerebellum is able to remember the “settings” it uses for synchronizing to music as we hear it, and it can recall those settings when we want to sing a song from memory. It allows us to synchronize our singing with a memory of the last time we sang. The basal ganglia—what Gerald Edelman has called “the organs of succession”—are almost certainly involved, as well, in
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