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Putkinen V, Zhou X, Gan X, Yang L, Becker B, Sams M, Nummenmaa L. Bodily maps of musical sensations across cultures. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2308859121. [PMID: 38271338 PMCID: PMC10835118 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2308859121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2023] [Accepted: 12/01/2023] [Indexed: 01/27/2024] Open
Abstract
Emotions, bodily sensations and movement are integral parts of musical experiences. Yet, it remains unknown i) whether emotional connotations and structural features of music elicit discrete bodily sensations and ii) whether these sensations are culturally consistent. We addressed these questions in a cross-cultural study with Western (European and North American, n = 903) and East Asian (Chinese, n = 1035). We precented participants with silhouettes of human bodies and asked them to indicate the bodily regions whose activity they felt changing while listening to Western and Asian musical pieces with varying emotional and acoustic qualities. The resulting bodily sensation maps (BSMs) varied as a function of the emotional qualities of the songs, particularly in the limb, chest, and head regions. Music-induced emotions and corresponding BSMs were replicable across Western and East Asian subjects. The BSMs clustered similarly across cultures, and cluster structures were similar for BSMs and self-reports of emotional experience. The acoustic and structural features of music were consistently associated with the emotion ratings and music-induced bodily sensations across cultures. These results highlight the importance of subjective bodily experience in music-induced emotions and demonstrate consistent associations between musical features, music-induced emotions, and bodily sensations across distant cultures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vesa Putkinen
- Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Turku 20520, Finland
- Turku Institute for Advanced Studies, Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Turku 20014, Finland
| | - Xinqi Zhou
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu 610066, China
| | - Xianyang Gan
- The Center of Psychosomatic Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Center for Mental Health, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610072, China
- MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China
| | - Linyu Yang
- College of Mathematics, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China
| | - Benjamin Becker
- State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
- Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
| | - Mikko Sams
- Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering, School of Science, Aalto University, Espoo 00076, Finland
| | - Lauri Nummenmaa
- Turku PET Centre, University of Turku, Turku 20520, Finland
- Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Turku 20520, Finland
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Albury AW, Bianco R, Gold BP, Penhune VB. Context changes judgments of liking and predictability for melodies. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1175682. [PMID: 38034280 PMCID: PMC10684779 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1175682] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2023] [Accepted: 10/23/2023] [Indexed: 12/02/2023] Open
Abstract
Predictability plays an important role in the experience of musical pleasure. By leveraging expectations, music induces pleasure through tension and surprise. However, musical predictions draw on both prior knowledge and immediate context. Similarly, musical pleasure, which has been shown to depend on predictability, may also vary relative to the individual and context. Although research has demonstrated the influence of both long-term knowledge and stimulus features in influencing expectations, it is unclear how perceptions of a melody are influenced by comparisons to other music pieces heard in the same context. To examine the effects of context we compared how listeners' judgments of two distinct sets of stimuli differed when they were presented alone or in combination. Stimuli were excerpts from a repertoire of Western music and a set of experimenter created melodies. Separate groups of participants rated liking and predictability for each set of stimuli alone and in combination. We found that when heard together, the Repertoire stimuli were more liked and rated as less predictable than if they were heard alone, with the opposite pattern being observed for the Experimental stimuli. This effect was driven by a change in ratings between the Alone and Combined conditions for each stimulus set. These findings demonstrate a context-based shift of predictability ratings and derived pleasure, suggesting that judgments stem not only from the physical properties of the stimulus, but also vary relative to other options available in the immediate context.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander W. Albury
- Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS) and Center for Research in Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM), Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Roberta Bianco
- Neuroscience of Perception and Action Laboratory, Italian Institute of Technology, Rome, Italy
| | - Benjamin P. Gold
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States
| | - Virginia B. Penhune
- Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS) and Center for Research in Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM), Montreal, QC, Canada
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