Absolute pitch (AP) is the ability to identify and/or produce specific music notes without a reference tone from the Western tonal system. Functional imaging studies show that AP is subserved by a network of interconnected neural structures including the left posterior dorsolateral frontal cortex (DLFC), the bilateral planum temporale (PT), and other brain regions. Neurophysiological studies show that AP possessors do not always require context updating during pitch identification due to possible "tonal templates", and that AP appears to emerge at a late processing stage that is associated with multiple cognitive strategies and is facilitated by music training at early ages. Morphometry studies show decreased cortical thickness and gray matter concentration among those with AP, which may reflect increased efficiency of AP skill. Graph theoretical analyses of cortical thickness covariations show involvement of higher-order auditory processing, working memory, and semantic memory processes. Diffusion tensor imaging studies provide evidence for a neural pathway between the left posterior DLFC and the left PT, which establishes retrieval and manipulation of verbal-tonal associations. Compared to AP musicians, quasi-AP (QAP) musicians have an extensive right hemisphere network implicated in auditory working memory and show the bilateral structural characteristics of PT morphometry. Future research should confirm the definition of PT boundary and the role of (bi)lateralization of PT in AP ability, develop a standard AP test, identify genetic bases of AP, and describe relations between AP, tonal languages, and associated neural functions and structures among non-musicians with AP ability.

Pain perception and its genesis in the human brain have been reviewed recently. In the current article, the reports on pain modulation in the human brain were reviewed from higher cortical regulation, i.e. top-down effect, particularly studied in psychological determinants. Pain modulation can be examined by gene therapy, physical modulation, pharmacological modulation, psychological modulation, and pathophysiological modulation. In psychological modulation, this article examined (a) willed determination, (b) distraction, (c) placebo, (d) hypnosis, (e) meditation, (f) qi-gong, (g) belief, and (h) emotions, respectively, in the brain function for pain modulation. In each, the operational definition, cortical processing, neuroimaging, and pain modulation were systematically deliberated. However, not all studies had featured the brain modulation processing but rather demonstrated potential effects on human pain. In our own studies on the emotional modulation on human pain, we observed that emotions could be induced from music melodies or pictures perception for reduction of tonic human pain, mainly in potentiation of the posterior alpha EEG fields, likely resulted from underneath activities of precuneous in regulation of consciousness, including pain perception. To sum, higher brain functions become the leading edge research in all sciences.How to solve the information bit of thinking and feeling in the brain can be the greatest challenge of human intelligence.Application of higher cortical modulation of human pain and suffering can lead to the progress of social humanity and civilization.

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