Emotional responses to pleasant and unpleasant music correlate with activity in paralimbic brain regions

The perception of emotion in music by people with hearing loss and people with cochlear implants

Music is an important part of life for many people. It can evoke a wide range of emotions, including sadness, happiness, anger, tension, relief and excitement. People with hearing loss and people with cochlear implants have reduced abilities to discriminate some of the features of musical sounds that may be involved in evoking emotions. This paper reviews these changes in perceptual abilities and describes how they affect the perception of emotion in music. For people with acquired partial hearing loss, it appears that the perception of emotion in music is almost normal, whereas congenital partial hearing loss is associated with impaired perception of music emotion. For people with cochlear implants, the ability to discriminate changes in fundamental frequency (associated with perceived pitch) is much worse than normal and musical harmony is hardly perceived. As a result, people with cochlear implants appear to judge emotion in music primarily using tempo and rhythm cues, and this limits the range of emotions that can be judged. This article is part of the theme issue 'Sensing and feeling: an integrative approach to sensory processing and emotional experience'.

Probing the neural dynamics of musicians' and non-musicians' consonant/dissonant perception: joint analyses of Electrical EncephaloGram (EEG) and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

The perception of two (or more) simultaneous musical notes, depending on their pitch interval(s), could be broadly categorized as consonant or dissonant. Previous literature has suggested that musicians and non-musicians adopt different strategies when discerning music intervals: while musicians rely on the frequency ratios between the two fundamental frequencies, such as "perfect fifth" (3:2) as consonant and "tritone" (45:32) as dissonant intervals; non-musicians may rely on the presence of 'roughness' or 'beats', generated by the difference of fundamental frequencies, as the key elements of 'dissonance'. The separate Event-Related Potential (ERP) differences in N1 and P2 along the midline electrodes provided evidence congruent with such 'separate reliances'. To replicate and to extend, in this study we reran the previous experiment, and separately collected fMRI data of the same protocol (with sparse sampling modifications). The behavioral and EEG results largely corresponded to our previous finding. The fMRI results, with the joint analyses by univariate, psycho-physiological interaction, and representational similarity analysis (RSA) approaches, further reinforce the involvement of central midline-related brain regions, such as ventromedial prefrontal and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, in consonant/dissonance judgments. The final spatiotemporal searchlight RSA provided convincing evidence that the medial prefrontal cortex, along with the bilateral superior temporal cortex, is the joint locus of midline N1 and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex for the P2 effect (for musicians). Together, these analyses reaffirm that musicians rely more on experience-driven knowledge for consonance/dissonance perception; but also demonstrate the advantages of multiple analyses in constraining the findings from both EEG and fMRI.

Visual sequence encoding is modulated by music schematic structure and familiarity

Music is omnipresent in daily life and may interact with critical cognitive processes including memory. Despite music's presence during diverse daily activities including studying, commuting, or working, existing literature has yielded mixed results as to whether music improves or impairs memory for information experienced in parallel. To elucidate how music memory and its predictive structure modulate the encoding of novel information, we developed a cross-modal sequence learning task during which participants acquired sequences of abstract shapes accompanied with paired music. Our goal was to investigate whether familiar and structurally regular music could provide a "temporal schema" (rooted in the organized and hierarchical structure of music) to enhance the acquisition of parallel temporally-ordered visual information. Results revealed a complex interplay between music familiarity and music structural regularity in learning paired visual sequences. Notably, compared to a control condition, listening to well-learned, regularly-structured music (music with high predictability) significantly facilitated visual sequence encoding, yielding quicker learning and retrieval speed. Conversely, learned but irregular music (where music memory violated musical syntax) significantly impaired sequence encoding. While those findings supported our mechanistic framework, intriguingly, unlearned irregular music-characterized by the lowest predictability-also demonstrated memory enhancement. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that concurrent music can modulate visual sequence learning, and the effect varies depending on the interaction between both music familiarity and regularity, offering insights into potential applications for enhancing human memory.

Dissonant music engages early visual processing

The neuroscientific examination of music processing in audio-visual contexts offers a valuable framework to assess how auditory information influences the emotional encoding of visual information. Using fMRI during naturalistic film viewing, we investigated the neural mechanisms underlying the effect of music on valence inferences during mental state attribution. Thirty-eight participants watched the same short-film accompanied by systematically controlled consonant or dissonant music. Subjects were instructed to think about the main character's intentions. The results revealed that increasing levels of dissonance led to more negatively valenced inferences, displaying the profound emotional impact of musical dissonance. Crucially, at the neuroscientific level and despite music being the sole manipulation, dissonance evoked the response of the primary visual cortex (V1). Functional/effective connectivity analysis showed a stronger coupling between the auditory ventral stream (AVS) and V1 in response to tonal dissonance and demonstrated the modulation of early visual processing via top-down feedback inputs from the AVS to V1. These V1 signal changes indicate the influence of high-level contextual representations associated with tonal dissonance on early visual cortices, serving to facilitate the emotional interpretation of visual information. Our results highlight the significance of employing systematically controlled music, which can isolate emotional valence from the arousal dimension, to elucidate the brain's sound-to-meaning interface and its distributive crossmodal effects on early visual encoding during naturalistic film viewing.

Music and Emotions in Non-Human Animals from Biological and Comparative Perspectives

The effects of sound stimulation as a sensorial environmental enrichment for captive animals have been studied. When appropriately implemented for farm animals, it can improve welfare, health, and productivity. Furthermore, there are indications that music can induce positive emotions in non-human animals, similar to humans. Emotion is a functional state of the organism involving both physiological processes, mediated by neuroendocrine regulation, and changes in behavior, affecting various aspects, including contextual perception and welfare. As there is very limited information on non-human animals, the objective of this review is to highlight what is known about these processes from human biological and comparative perspectives and stimulate future research on using music to improve animal welfare.

The Impact of Music Perception on Quantitative Sensory Testing (QST)

Objective: The impact of listening to music on pain perception has been evaluated using questionnaires and numeric/visual analogue scales. In this study, the impact of music perception on sensory pain functions was measured by means of quantitative sensory testing. Methods: We enrolled 10 female and 10 male healthy subjects (10 of them were professional musicians). All subjects underwent, in total, four quantitative sensory testing measures (first: baseline; second: after pleasant music [Johannes Brahms, 3rd symphony, 3rd movement]; third: after unpleasant music [Krzysztof Penderecki, Threnos]; fourth: after a longer break). The pleasantness of music was evaluated using the Ertel differential scale. Results: After the participants listened to pleasant music, an increased sensitivity to cold stimuli (both threshold and pain), to mechanical stimuli (only for threshold), and to repeated stimuli (wind-up reaction) was noted. Listening to unpleasant music was not associated with changes in sensitivity. We did not observe any significant differences between male and female subjects or between musicians and non-musicians. There was no significant correlation between the rating of the music as pleasant/unpleasant and the different quantitative sensory testing measures. Conclusions: Our data show that listening to music inducing a pleasant feeling can increase the sensitivity to stimuli applied during a quantitative sensory testing session. This should be considered when performing or interpreting quantitative sensory testing examinations. Interestingly, this finding is in contrast to the observation that listening to music can decrease pain perception during painful procedures.

Beyond the ears: A review exploring the interconnected brain behind the hierarchical memory of music

Music is a ubiquitous element of daily life. Understanding how music memory is represented and expressed in the brain is key to understanding how music can influence human daily cognitive tasks. Current music-memory literature is built on data from very heterogeneous tasks for measuring memory, and the neural correlates appear to differ depending on different forms of memory function targeted. Such heterogeneity leaves many exceptions and conflicts in the data underexplained (e.g., hippocampal involvement in music memory is debated). This review provides an overview of existing neuroimaging results from music-memory related studies and concludes that although music is a special class of event in our lives, the memory systems behind it do in fact share neural mechanisms with memories from other modalities. We suggest that dividing music memory into different levels of a hierarchy (structural level and semantic level) helps understand overlap and divergence in neural networks involved. This is grounded in the fact that memorizing a piece of music recruits brain clusters that separately support functions including-but not limited to-syntax storage and retrieval, temporal processing, prediction versus reality comparison, stimulus feature integration, personal memory associations, and emotion perception. The cross-talk between frontal-parietal music structural processing centers and the subcortical emotion and context encoding areas explains why music is not only so easily memorable but can also serve as strong contextual information for encoding and retrieving nonmusic information in our lives.

Evaluating the Influence of Musical and Monetary Rewards on Decision Making through Computational Modelling

A central question in behavioural neuroscience is how different rewards modulate learning. While the role of monetary rewards is well-studied in decision-making research, the influence of abstract rewards like music remains poorly understood. This study investigated the dissociable effects of these two reward types on decision making. Forty participants completed two decision-making tasks, each characterised by probabilistic associations between stimuli and rewards, with probabilities changing over time to reflect environmental volatility. In each task, choices were reinforced either by monetary outcomes (win/lose) or by the endings of musical melodies (consonant/dissonant). We applied the Hierarchical Gaussian Filter, a validated hierarchical Bayesian framework, to model learning under these two conditions. Bayesian statistics provided evidence for similar learning patterns across both reward types, suggesting individuals' similar adaptability. However, within the musical task, individual preferences for consonance over dissonance explained some aspects of learning. Specifically, correlation analyses indicated that participants more tolerant of dissonance behaved more stochastically in their belief-to-response mappings and were less likely to choose the response associated with the current prediction for a consonant ending, driven by higher volatility estimates. By contrast, participants averse to dissonance showed increased tonic volatility, leading to larger updates in reward tendency beliefs.

The transformative power of music: Insights into neuroplasticity, health, and disease

Music is a universal language that can elicit profound emotional and cognitive responses. In this literature review, we explore the intricate relationship between music and the brain, from how it is decoded by the nervous system to its therapeutic potential in various disorders. Music engages a diverse network of brain regions and circuits, including sensory-motor processing, cognitive, memory, and emotional components. Music-induced brain network oscillations occur in specific frequency bands, and listening to one's preferred music can grant easier access to these brain functions. Moreover, music training can bring about structural and functional changes in the brain, and studies have shown its positive effects on social bonding, cognitive abilities, and language processing. We also discuss how music therapy can be used to retrain impaired brain circuits in different disorders. Understanding how music affects the brain can open up new avenues for music-based interventions in healthcare, education, and wellbeing.

Graph theoretical brain connectivity measures to investigate neural correlates of music rhythms associated with fear and anger

The present study tests the hypothesis that emotions of fear and anger are associated with distinct psychophysiological and neural circuitry according to discrete emotion model due to contrasting neurotransmitter activities, despite being included in the same affective group in many studies due to similar arousal-valance scores of them in emotion models. EEG data is downloaded from OpenNeuro platform with access number of ds002721. Brain connectivity estimations are obtained by using both functional and effective connectivity estimators in analysis of short (2 sec) and long (6 sec) EEG segments across the cortex. In tests, discrete emotions and resting-states are identified by frequency band specific brain network measures and then contrasting emotional states are deep classified with 5-fold cross-validated Long Short Term Memory Networks. Logistic regression modeling has also been examined to provide robust performance criteria. Commonly, the best results are obtained by using Partial Directed Coherence in Gamma (31.5 - 60.5 H z ) sub-bands of short EEG segments. In particular, Fear and Anger have been classified with accuracy of 91.79%. Thus, our hypothesis is supported by overall results. In conclusion, Anger is found to be characterized by increased transitivity and decreased local efficiency in addition to lower modularity in Gamma-band in comparison to fear. Local efficiency refers functional brain segregation originated from the ability of the brain to exchange information locally. Transitivity refer the overall probability for the brain having adjacent neural populations interconnected, thus revealing the existence of tightly connected cortical regions. Modularity quantifies how well the brain can be partitioned into functional cortical regions. In conclusion, PDC is proposed to graph theoretical analysis of short EEG epochs in presenting robust emotional indicators sensitive to perception of affective sounds.

Wonder symphony: epigenetics and the enchantment of the arts

Epigenetics, the study of heritable changes in gene expression without altering the DNA sequence, has gained significant attention due to its implications for gene regulation and chromatin stability. Epigenetic mechanisms play a fundamental role in gene-environment interactions, shaping individual development and adaptation. DNA methylation, histone modifications, and non-coding RNAs are key epigenetic regulators. Epigenetic changes can be triggered by environmental factors, including stress, toxins, and social interactions, influencing health and well-being. Positive experiences, such as engagement with the arts, have been linked to emotional responses and neurotransmitter release. While the impacts of detrimental factors on epigenetics have been widely studied, the effects of positive influences are less explored. Specifically, visual art and music have profound effects on emotions, cognition, and mood regulation. Exposure to arts enhances memory, reduces stress, and fosters social inclusion. Recent research has begun to explore the links between positive experiences and epigenetic modifications, suggesting that aesthetic experiences, including visual art and music fruition, might induce dynamic and/or stable changes in gene expression profiles. However, this field is in its infancy, and more research is needed to establish clear connections. Collaborative efforts among genetics, epigenetics, neuroscience, psychology, and the arts are essential for a comprehensive understanding. Longitudinal studies tracking sustained exposure to positive experiences and examining the influence of childhood artistic education on the biological bases of therapeutic effects of art and music are promising avenues for future research. Ultimately, understanding how positive experiences influence epigenetics could provide insights into the long-term enhancement of human well-being.

Dopamine dysregulation in Parkinson's disease flattens the pleasurable urge to move to musical rhythms

The pleasurable urge to move to music (PLUMM) activates motor and reward areas of the brain and is thought to be driven by predictive processes. Dopamine in motor and limbic networks is implicated in beat-based timing and music-induced pleasure, suggesting a central role of basal ganglia (BG) dopaminergic systems in PLUMM. This study tested this hypothesis by comparing PLUMM in participants with Parkinson's disease (PD), age-matched controls, and young controls. Participants listened to musical sequences with varying rhythmic and harmonic complexity (low, medium and high), and rated their experienced pleasure and urge to move to the rhythm. In line with previous results, healthy younger participants showed an inverted U-shaped relationship between rhythmic complexity and ratings, with preference for medium complexity rhythms, while age-matched controls showed a similar, but weaker, inverted U-shaped response. Conversely, PD showed a significantly flattened response for both the urge to move and pleasure. Crucially, this flattened response could not be attributed to differences in rhythm discrimination and did not reflect an overall decrease in ratings. For harmonic complexity, PD showed a negative linear pattern for both the urge to move and pleasure while healthy age-matched controls showed the same pattern for pleasure and an inverted U for the urge to move. This contrasts with the pattern observed in young healthy controls in previous studies, suggesting that both healthy aging and PD also influence affective responses to harmonic complexity. Together, these results support the role of dopamine within cortico-striatal circuits in the predictive processes that form the link between the perceptual processing of rhythmic patterns and the affective and motor responses to rhythmic music.

Interoception and the musical brain: Evidence from cross-sectional and longitudinal behavioral and resting-state fMRI study

Musical training has been linked to enhanced interoceptive abilities and increased resting-state (RS) functional connectivity (FC) within the interoceptive brain network. We aimed to replicate and extend these findings with a unique cross-sectional and longitudinal study design. Professional musicians and matched individuals with no prior musical experience (training group) were recruited. Participants underwent RS fMRI scans and completed heartbeat counting and discrimination tasks outside of the scanner (time point 1). The training group additionally had RS scans and interoception tests repeated after a 6-month-long keyboard course training (time point 2). We found no evidence for increased interoceptive abilities in professional musicians relative to non-musicians, nor did we observe any improvements in interoception over the course of musical training. RS FC analysis revealed increased FC within the sensorimotor network in professional musicians compared to the training group at the first time point with no change in FC over time in the Training group. These findings challenge the view that musical training may improve interoceptive abilities. Yet, the results suggest that musical training is related to increased communication within the sensorimotor RS network, which consists of some hubs important for interoceptive processing (namely pre- and postcentral gyri and supplementary motor area).

Syncopation as Probabilistic Expectation: Conceptual, Computational, and Experimental Evidence

Definitions of syncopation share two characteristics: the presence of a meter or analogous hierarchical rhythmic structure and a displacement or contradiction of that structure. These attributes are translated in terms of a Bayesian theory of syncopation, where the syncopation of a rhythm is inferred based on a hierarchical structure that is, in turn, learned from the ongoing musical stimulus. Several experiments tested its simplest possible implementation, with equally weighted priors associated with different meters and independence of auditory events, which can be decomposed into two terms representing note density and deviation from a metric hierarchy. A computational simulation demonstrated that extant measures of syncopation fall into two distinct factors analogous to the terms in the simple Bayesian model. Next, a series of behavioral experiments found that perceived syncopation is significantly related to both terms, offering support for the general Bayesian construction of syncopation. However, we also found that the prior expectations associated with different metric structures are not equal across meters and that there is an interaction between density and hierarchical deviation, implying that auditory events are not independent from each other. Together, these findings provide evidence that syncopation is a manifestation of a form of temporal expectation that can be directly represented in Bayesian terms and offer a complementary, feature-driven approach to recent Bayesian models of temporal prediction.

The influence of musical parameters and subjective musical ratings on perceptions of culture

Recent research suggests that music can affect evaluations of other groups and cultures. However, little is known about the objective and subjective musical parameters that influence these evaluations. We aimed to fill this gap through two studies. Study 1 collected responses from 52 American participants who listened to 30 folk-song melodies from different parts of the world. Linear mixed-effects models tested the influence of objective and subjective musical parameters of these melodies on evaluations of the cultures from which they originated. Musical parameters consistently predicted cultural evaluations. The most prominent musical parameter was musical velocity, a measure of number of pitch onsets, predicting more cultural warmth, competence and evolvedness and less cultural threat. Next, with a sample of 212 American participants, Study 2 used a within-subjects experiment to alter the tempo and dissonance for a subset of six melody excerpts from Study 1, testing for causal effects. Linear mixed-effects models revealed that both dissonance and slow tempo predicted more negative cultural evaluations. Together, both studies demonstrate how musical parameters can influence cultural perceptions. Avenues for future research are discussed.

Patients With Better Outcome Have Higher ERP Response to Emotional Auditory Stimuli

PURPOSE

Accuracy of outcome prognosis is one of the most important tasks of coma arousal therapy. Reactions toward sensory stimuli are the most significant predictor of conscience and cognitive functions restoration after a brain injury. A paradigm that includes ERP registration has the advantage of detailed stimuli processing visualization. The authors aimed to investigate perception and distinguishing of emotionally significant sounds (crying and laughter) in coma patients with different consciousness restoration prognosis.

METHODS

EEG was recorded in 24 comatose patients with different outcomes (scored with Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended) and 32 healthy volunteers. The authors presented sounds of crying and laughter. ERPs for sound stimulation were calculated.

RESULTS

An analysis of the correlation of ERP components and Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended score was performed. P200 (r = 0.6, P = 0.0014) and N200 amplitudes (r = -0.56, P = 0.0037) for emotional sounds correlated with the Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended score. The significant differences of P300 and N400 amplitudes corresponded to differences of response between sounds of crying and laughter in subjects of the control group. Unlike the control group, comatose participants with good outcome produced similar electrical activity toward pleasant and unpleasant emotional stimuli.

CONCLUSIONS

Comatose patients with good outcome produced more prominent ERP for emotional sounds. Even the good outcome participants were unable to distinguish emotional sounds of different moods, which indicate the preservation of solely robust mechanisms of sound processing. N200 and P200 amplitudes for emotional stimuli correlated significantly with outcome prognosis in coma patients.

Emotional responses to favorite and relaxing music predict music-induced hypoalgesia

Introduction

The hypoalgesic effect of music has long been established. However, the characteristics of music which are important for reducing pain have not been well-studied. Some research has compared subject-selected preferred music to unfamiliar music selected by researchers, and has typically found a superior effect from preferred music. In this study, we sought to discover what aspects of listeners' relationship with their preferred music was important in producing a hypoalgesic effect.

Methods

We conducted a thermal pain and music listening experiment with 63 participants (14 male, 49 female, mean age = 21.3), in which music excerpts were paired with thermal stimulations. Pain ratings of intensity and unpleasantness, as well as emotional response variables, were rated on visual analog scales. We also conducted brief structured interviews about participants' favorite music, on which we conducted thematic content analysis. Themes and emotion variables were analyzed for their effects on pain ratings.

Results

We first replicated the finding that favorite music outperforms experimenter-selected relaxing music in reducing pain unpleasantness (MD = -7.25, p < 0.001) and that the difference in hypoalgesia was partially mediated by an increase in musical chills (ab = -2.83, p < 0.01). We then conducted a theme analysis on the interview transcripts and produced four themes relating to emotional experience: moving/bittersweet, calming/relaxing, happy/cheerful, and energizing/activating. We found suggestive evidence that moving/bittersweet favorite music reduces pain unpleasantness through increased music pleasantness (ab = -5.48, p < 0.001) and more musical chills (ab = -0.57, p = 0.004).

Discussion

We find that music pleasantness and musical chills are salient predictors of music-induced hypoalgesia, and that different categories of favorite music derived from qualitative analysis may engage these emotional pathways to different degrees.

Auditory and reward structures reflect the pleasure of musical expectancies during naturalistic listening

Enjoying music consistently engages key structures of the neural auditory and reward systems such as the right superior temporal gyrus (R STG) and ventral striatum (VS). Expectations seem to play a central role in this effect, as preferences reliably vary according to listeners' uncertainty about the musical future and surprise about the musical past. Accordingly, VS activity reflects the pleasure of musical surprise, and exhibits stronger correlations with R STG activity as pleasure grows. Yet the reward value of musical surprise - and thus the reason for these surprises engaging the reward system - remains an open question. Recent models of predictive neural processing and learning suggest that forming, testing, and updating hypotheses about one's environment may be intrinsically rewarding, and that the constantly evolving structure of musical patterns could provide ample opportunity for this procedure. Consistent with these accounts, our group previously found that listeners tend to prefer melodic excerpts taken from real music when it either validates their uncertain melodic predictions (i.e., is high in uncertainty and low in surprise) or when it challenges their highly confident ones (i.e., is low in uncertainty and high in surprise). An independent research group (Cheung et al., 2019) replicated these results with musical chord sequences, and identified their fMRI correlates in the STG, amygdala, and hippocampus but not the VS, raising new questions about the neural mechanisms of musical pleasure that the present study seeks to address. Here, we assessed concurrent liking ratings and hemodynamic fMRI signals as 24 participants listened to 50 naturalistic, real-world musical excerpts that varied across wide spectra of computationally modeled uncertainty and surprise. As in previous studies, liking ratings exhibited an interaction between uncertainty and surprise, with the strongest preferences for high uncertainty/low surprise and low uncertainty/high surprise. FMRI results also replicated previous findings, with music liking effects in the R STG and VS. Furthermore, we identify interactions between uncertainty and surprise on the one hand, and liking and surprise on the other, in VS activity. Altogether, these results provide important support for the hypothesized role of the VS in deriving pleasure from learning about musical structure.

The Pleasurable Urge to Move to Music Through the Lens of Learning Progress

Interacting with music is a uniquely pleasurable activity that is ubiquitous across human cultures. Current theories suggest that a prominent driver of musical pleasure responses is the violation and confirmation of temporal predictions. For example, the pleasurable urge to move to music (PLUMM), which is associated with the broader concept of groove, is higher for moderately complex rhythms compared to simple and complex rhythms. This inverted U-shaped relation between PLUMM and rhythmic complexity is thought to result from a balance between predictability and uncertainty. That is, moderately complex rhythms lead to strongly weighted prediction errors which elicit an urge to move to reinforce the predictive model (i.e., the meter). However, the details of these processes and how they bring about positive affective responses are currently underspecified. We propose that the intrinsic motivation for learning progress drives PLUMM and informs the music humans choose to listen to, dance to, and create. Here, learning progress reflects the rate of prediction error minimization over time. Accordingly, reducible prediction errors signal the potential for learning progress, producing a pleasurable, curious state characterized by the mobilization of attentional and memory resources. We discuss this hypothesis in the context of current psychological and neuroscientific research on musical pleasure and PLUMM. We propose a theoretical neuroscientific model focusing on the roles of dopamine and norepinephrine within a feedback loop linking prediction-based learning, curiosity, and memory. This perspective provides testable predictions that will motivate future research to further illuminate the fundamental relation between predictions, movement, and reward.

Targeting the Limbic System: Insights into Its Involvement in Tinnitus

Tinnitus is originally derived from the Latin verb tinnire, which means "to ring". Tinnitus, a complex disorder, is a result of sentient cognizance of a sound in the absence of an external auditory stimulus. It is reported in children, adults, and older populations. Patients suffering from tinnitus often present with hearing loss, anxiety, depression, and sleep disruption in addition to a hissing and ringing in the ear. Surgical interventions and many other forms of treatment have been only partially effective due to heterogeneity in tinnitus patients and a lack of understanding of the mechanisms of tinnitus. Although researchers across the globe have made significant progress in understanding the underlying mechanisms of tinnitus over the past few decades, tinnitus is still deemed to be a scientific enigma. This review summarises the role of the limbic system in tinnitus development and provides insight into the development of potential target-specific tinnitus therapies.

The impact of sociality and affective valence on brain activation: A meta-analysis

Thirty years of neuroimaging reveal the set of brain regions consistently associated with pleasant and unpleasant affect in humans-or the neural reference space for valence. Yet some of humans' most potent affective states occur in the context of other humans. Prior work has yet to differentiate how the neural reference space for valence varies as a product of the sociality of affective stimuli. To address this question, we meta-analyzed across 614 social and non-social affective neuroimaging contrasts, summarizing the brain regions that are consistently activated for social and non-social affective information. We demonstrate that across the literature, social and non-social affective stimuli yield overlapping activations within regions associated with visceromotor control, including the amygdala, hypothalamus, anterior cingulate cortex and insula. However, we find that social processing differs from non-social affective processing in that it involves additional cortical activations in the medial prefrontal and posterior cingulum that have been associated with mentalizing and prediction. A Bayesian classifier was able to differentiate unpleasant from pleasant affect, but not social from non-social affective states. Moreover, it was not able to classify unpleasantness from pleasantness at the highest levels of sociality. These findings suggest that highly social scenarios may be equally salient to humans, regardless of their valence.

Spectro-temporal acoustic elements of music interact in an integrated way to modulate emotional responses in pigs

Music is a complex stimulus, with various spectro-temporal acoustic elements determining one of the most important attributes of music, the ability to elicit emotions. Effects of various musical acoustic elements on emotions in non-human animals have not been studied with an integrated approach. However, this knowledge is important to design music to provide environmental enrichment for non-human species. Thirty-nine instrumental musical pieces were composed and used to determine effects of various acoustic parameters on emotional responses in farm pigs. Video recordings (n = 50) of pigs in the nursery phase (7-9 week old) were gathered and emotional responses induced by stimuli were evaluated with Qualitative Behavioral Assessment (QBA). Non-parametric statistical models (Generalized Additive Models, Decision Trees, Random Forests, and XGBoost) were applied and compared to evaluate relationships between acoustic parameters and pigs' observed emotional responses. We concluded that musical structure affected emotional responses of pigs. The valence of modulated emotions depended on integrated and simultaneous interactions of various spectral and temporal structural components of music that can be readily modified. This new knowledge supports design of musical stimuli to be used as environmental enrichment for non-human animals.

Musicogenic seizures in temporal lobe epilepsy: Case reports based on ictal source localization analysis

Musicogenic epilepsy is a rare form of reflex epilepsy in which seizures are provoked by music. Different musicogenic stimuli have been identified: pleasant/unpleasant music or specific musical patterns. Several etiologies have been uncovered, such as focal cortical dysplasia, autoimmune encephalitis, tumors, or unspecific gliosis. In this article, we report two patients with musicogenic seizures. The first patient was diagnosed with structural temporal lobe epilepsy. Her seizures were elicited by music that she liked. Interictal and ictal video-electroencephalography (video-EEG) and signal analysis using independent component analysis revealed the right temporal lobe seizure onset extending over the neocortical regions. The patient underwent right temporal lobectomy (including the amygdala, the head, and the body of the hippocampus) and faced an Engel IA outcome 3 years post-surgery. The second patient was diagnosed with autoimmune temporal lobe epilepsy (GAD-65 antibodies). Her seizures were triggered by contemporary hit radio songs without any personal emotional significance. Interictal and ictal video-electroencephalography (video-EEG) and independent component analysis highlighted the left temporal lobe seizure onset extending over the neocortical regions. Intravenous immunoglobulin therapy was initiated, and the patient became seizure-free at 1 year. In conclusion, musicogenic seizures may be elicited by various auditory stimuli, the presence or absence of an emotional component offering an additional clue for the underlying network pathophysiology. Furthermore, in such cases, the use of independent component analysis of the scalp EEG signals proves useful in revealing the location of the seizure generator, and our findings point toward the temporal lobe, both mesial and neocortical regions.

Why art? The role of arts in arts and health

This article is an answer to a report called "What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being?" The authors conclude that the arts have an impact on mental and physical health. Yet, the question of the role of the arts remains unanswered. What is and what is not an art effect? Recently, embodied theory has inspired articles on the perception of art. These articles have not yet received attention in the field of Arts and Health. Scholars in psychosomatic medicine have argued for an approach based on recent work in enactive embodied theory to investigate the connection between the body and the mind. The present article examines how key concepts in this theory relate to art. This leads to a discussion of art in terms of empathy-the relation between the internal state of the artist and the internal state of the beholder. I exemplify with a conceptual framework of musical empathy. Implications for health are addressed.

Consonance and dissonance perception. A critical review of the historical sources, multidisciplinary findings, and main hypotheses

Revealed more than two millennia ago by Pythagoras, consonance and dissonance (C/D) are foundational concepts in music theory, perception, and aesthetics. The search for the biological, acoustical, and cultural factors that affect C/D perception has resulted in descriptive accounts inspired by arithmetic, musicological, psychoacoustical or neurobiological frameworks without reaching a consensus. Here, we review the key historical sources and modern multidisciplinary findings on C/D and integrate them into three main hypotheses: the vocal similarity hypothesis (VSH), the psychocultural hypothesis (PH), and the sensorimotor hypothesis (SH). By illustrating the hypotheses-related findings, we highlight their major conceptual, methodological, and terminological shortcomings. Trying to provide a unitary framework for C/D understanding, we put together multidisciplinary research on human and animal vocalizations, which converges to suggest that auditory roughness is associated with distress/danger and, therefore, elicits defensive behavioral reactions and neural responses that indicate aversion. We therefore stress the primacy of vocality and roughness as key factors in the explanation of C/D phenomenon, and we explore the (neuro)biological underpinnings of the attraction-aversion mechanisms that are triggered by C/D stimuli. Based on the reviewed evidence, while the aversive nature of dissonance appears as solidly rooted in the multidisciplinary findings, the attractive nature of consonance remains a somewhat speculative claim that needs further investigation. Finally, we outline future directions for empirical research in C/D, especially regarding cross-modal and cross-cultural approaches.

The hearing hippocampus

The hippocampus has a well-established role in spatial and episodic memory but a broader function has been proposed including aspects of perception and relational processing. Neural bases of sound analysis have been described in the pathway to auditory cortex, but wider networks supporting auditory cognition are still being established. We review what is known about the role of the hippocampus in processing auditory information, and how the hippocampus itself is shaped by sound. In examining imaging, recording, and lesion studies in species from rodents to humans, we uncover a hierarchy of hippocampal responses to sound including during passive exposure, active listening, and the learning of associations between sounds and other stimuli. We describe how the hippocampus' connectivity and computational architecture allow it to track and manipulate auditory information - whether in the form of speech, music, or environmental, emotional, or phantom sounds. Functional and structural correlates of auditory experience are also identified. The extent of auditory-hippocampal interactions is consistent with the view that the hippocampus makes broad contributions to perception and cognition, beyond spatial and episodic memory. More deeply understanding these interactions may unlock applications including entraining hippocampal rhythms to support cognition, and intervening in links between hearing loss and dementia.

The early adolescent brain on music: Analysis of functional dynamics reveals engagement of orbitofrontal cortex reward system

Music listening plays a pivotal role for children and adolescents, yet it remains unclear how music modulates brain activity at the level of functional networks in this young population. Analysing the dynamics of brain networks occurring and dissolving over time in response to music can provide a better understanding of the neural underpinning of music listening. We collected functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from 17 preadolescents aged 10-11 years while listening to two similar music pieces separated by periods without music. We subsequently tracked the occurrence of functional brain networks over the recording time using a recent method that detects recurrent patterns of phase-locking in the fMRI signals: the leading eigenvector dynamics analysis (LEiDA). The probabilities of occurrence and switching profiles of different functional networks were compared between periods of music and no music. Our results showed significantly increased occurrence of a specific functional network during the two music pieces compared to no music, involving the medial orbitofrontal and ventromedial prefrontal cortices-a brain subsystem associated to reward processing. Moreover, the higher the musical reward sensitivity of the preadolescents, the more this network was preceded by a pattern involving the insula. Our findings highlight the involvement of a brain subsystem associated with hedonic and emotional processing during music listening in the early adolescent brain. These results offer novel insight into the neural underpinnings of musical reward in early adolescence, improving our understanding of the important role and the potential benefits of music at this delicate age.

Effect of Carnatic raga-Bilahari based music therapy on anxiety, sleep disturbances and somatic symptoms among caregivers of cancer patients

Carnatic raga-Bilahari based intervention is a music therapy technique that enhances relaxation and positivity by reducing anxiety. With extensive empirical evidence pointing out the detrimental challenges faced by the caregivers of cancer patients, the present study intends to find out the effectiveness of a Carnatic raga based music therapy on reducing anxiety, sleep disturbances, somatic symptoms and distress level among this population A single group pre-post research design was was used to conduct the study. General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) was used as a screening tool to select participants, and 30 participants were chosen using the purposive sampling. These individuals received instruction in listening to Carnatic music (raga-Bilahari), 5 days a week. The vocal and instrumental recordings were given on alternative days with each session lasting 15–30 min over a month of standard care. From the findings it is observed that there is significant decrease in the anxiety (p < 0.001), sleep disturbances (p < 0.001), somatic symptoms (p < 0.001) and distress level (p < 0.001) after the intervention.The study result thus indicates that Carnatic raga-Bilahari-based music intervention is effective among caregivers of cancer patients to reduce anxiety, sleep disturbances, somatic symptoms presentation, and their distress level.

Dissociable effects of music and white noise on conflict-induced behavioral adjustments

Auditory stimuli, encompassing a continually expanding collection of musical genres and sonic hues, present a safe and easily administrable therapeutic option for alleviating cognitive deficits associated with neuropsychological disorders, but their effects on executive control are yet to be completely understood. To better understand how the processing of certain acoustic properties can influence conflict processing, we had a large of cohort of undergraduate students complete the Stroop colour and word test in three different background conditions: classical music, white noise, and silence. Because of pandemic guidelines and the necessity to run the experiment remotely, participants also completed the Wisconsin card sorting test (WCST), so that the reliability and consistency of acquired data could be assessed. We found that white noise, but not classical music increased the response time difference between congruent (low conflict) and incongruent (high conflict) trials (conflict cost), hence impairing performance. Results from the WCST indicated that home-based data collection was reliable, replicating a performance bias reported in our previous laboratory-based experiments. Both the auditory stimuli were played at a similar intensity, thus their dissociable effects may have resulted from differing emotional responses within participants, where white noise, but not music elicited a negative response. Integrated with previous literature, our findings indicate that outside of changes in tempo and valence, classical music does not affect cognitive functions associated with conflict processing, whilst white noise impairs these functions in a manner similar to other stressors, and hence requires further research before its implementation into neuropsychiatric care.

Emotional neuroaesthetics of color experience: Views from single, paired, and complex color combinations

Colors are critical for understanding the emotional aspect of the human artistic mind, such as that found in painting a landscape, still life, or portrait. First, we report how single colors are memorized in the brain; second, how pairs of colors harmonize in the dissociated brain under the influence of the emotional brain; third, we see how colored paintings are appreciated as beautiful or ugly in the dissociated brain areas led by the intrinsic reward system in the human brain. The orbitofrontal brain is probably one of the vital brain areas that brings us a value-based reward system that makes a unique contribution to emotional neuroaesthetics.

Addressing the need for personalizing music therapy in integrative oncology

Music therapy is an integrative oncology practice that has been rapidly emerging, over the past two decades, as a field of its own, clinically and academically. The randomized controlled trials that evaluate the clinical impact of music therapy are growing in number, and at the same time, there has been progress in understanding the neurobiological mechanisms that underly the beneficial effects of music therapy. Cultural background and autobiographical memories may uniquely influence music perception and cognition. It is vital to personalize music therapy because music preferences are unique; one size does not fit all. Cognitive music science studies and clinical music therapy trials that study individualized music choices will serve as a vital step forward in providing patient-directed personalized integrative cancer care. The field of music therapy is advancing, and its ability to improve a patient's quality of life can be understood only through robust, personalized, evidence-based initiatives that focus on research, advocacy, education, and delivery of care.

Integrating music-based interventions with Gamma-frequency stimulation: Implications for healthy ageing

In recent years, music-based interventions (MBIs) have risen in popularity as a non-invasive, sustainable form of care for treating dementia-related disorders, such as Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Despite their clinical potential, evidence regarding the efficacy of MBIs on patient outcomes is mixed. Recently, a line of related research has begun to investigate the clinical impact of non-invasive Gamma-frequency (e.g., 40 Hz) sensory stimulation on dementia. Current work, using non-human-animal models of AD, suggests that non-invasive Gamma-frequency stimulation can remediate multiple pathophysiologies of dementia at the molecular, cellular and neural-systems scales, and, importantly, improve cognitive functioning. These findings suggest that the efficacy of MBIs could, in theory, be enhanced by incorporating Gamma-frequency stimulation into current MBI protocols. In the current review, we propose a novel clinical framework for non-invasively treating dementia-related disorders that combines previous MBIs with current approaches employing Gamma-frequency sensory stimulation. We theorize that combining MBIs with Gamma-frequency stimulation could increase the therapeutic power of MBIs by simultaneously targeting multiple biomarkers of dementia, restoring neural activity that underlies learning and memory (e.g., Gamma-frequency neural activity, Theta-Gamma coupling), and actively engaging auditory and reward networks in the brain to promote behavioural change.

Effects of traditional Cantonese opera songs on Cantonese-speaking, community-dwelling older adults' cognitive and psychological function, well-being, and health

Objectives: Experiencing multi-sensory cognitive stimulation through the enjoyment of Cantonese opera songs, with their lively rhythms, familiar folk tales, meaningful lyrics and pleasant scenarios, has the potential to increase neuroplasticity and prevent cognitive decline.Methods: This prospective pre- and post-test quasi-experimental randomised controlled trial design study aimed to explore the social benefits of older adults' active participation in practising Cantonese opera songs as compared with passive participation (as an audience) and a non-interventional control group on cognitive function psychological function, functional independence, well-being and health.Results: By recruiting a group of older adults who were receiving day activities social service in Hong Kong. Thirty participants were randomly allocated to active participation in Cantonese opera (ACO). They participated in practising Cantonese opera songs. Thirty-four participants were assigned to passive participation in Cantonese opera (PCO). They received passive intervention by listening to and appreciating the opera songs as a social event. Thirty-one participants were used as a control group and received no similar training. (Results) ACO caused a positive change in cognitive function as compared to PCO and to no intervention, which implies that active learning and practise of opera songs benefits global cognitive function. The psychological function of the participants in the PCO group showed an elevated positive affect and a reduced negative affect. A statistically significant difference was noted in the time effect among the physical domains of health status, functional independence and well-being of participants who underwent Cantonese opera intervention.

Music modulates emotional responses in growing pigs

There is a lack of clarity on whether pigs can emotionally respond to musical stimulation and whether that response is related to music structure. Qualitative Behavioral Assessment (QBA) was used to evaluate effects of 16 distinct musical pieces (in terms of harmonic structure) on emotional responses in nursery pigs (n = 30) during four periods: "habituation", "treatments", "breaks" and "final". Data were evaluated using Principal component analysis (PCA). Two principal components (PC) were considered in the analysis: PC1, characterized as a positive emotions index, included the emotional responses content, playful, sociable, and happy, whereas PC2, characterized as a negative emotions index, included fearful, inquisitive, and uneasy with positive loadings, and relaxed and calm with negative loadings. Musical stimulation (treatment) increased (P < 0.01) both emotional indices, compared to other periods and this response was influenced by harmonic characteristics of the music. We concluded that pigs have a wide variety of emotional responses, with different affective states related to the music structure used, providing evidence of its potential use as environmental enrichment for this species.

Crossmodal Harmony: Looking for the Meaning of Harmony Beyond Hearing

The notion of harmony was first developed in the context of metaphysics before being applied to the domain of music. However, in recent centuries, the term has often been used to describe especially pleasing combinations of colors by those working in the visual arts too. Similarly, the harmonization of flavors is nowadays often invoked as one of the guiding principles underpinning the deliberate pairing of food and drink. However, beyond the various uses of the term to describe and construct pleasurable unisensory perceptual experiences, it has also been suggested that music and painting may be combined harmoniously (e.g., see the literature on “color music”). Furthermore, those working in the area of “sonic seasoning” sometimes describe certain sonic compositions as harmonizing crossmodally with specific flavor sensations. In this review, we take a critical look at the putative meaning(s) of the term “harmony” when used in a crossmodal, or multisensory, context. Furthermore, we address the question of whether the term's use outside of a strictly unimodal auditory context should be considered literally or merely metaphorically (i.e., as a shorthand to describe those combinations of sensory stimuli that, for whatever reason, appear to go well together, and hence which can be processed especially fluently).

Multi-Modal Integration of EEG-fNIRS for Characterization of Brain Activity Evoked by Preferred Music

Music can effectively improve people's emotions, and has now become an effective auxiliary treatment method in modern medicine. With the rapid development of neuroimaging, the relationship between music and brain function has attracted much attention. In this study, we proposed an integrated framework of multi-modal electroencephalogram (EEG) and functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) from data collection to data analysis to explore the effects of music (especially personal preferred music) on brain activity. During the experiment, each subject was listening to two different kinds of music, namely personal preferred music and neutral music. In analyzing the synchronization signals of EEG and fNIRS, we found that music promotes the activity of the brain (especially the prefrontal lobe), and the activation induced by preferred music is stronger than that of neutral music. For the multi-modal features of EEG and fNIRS, we proposed an improved Normalized-ReliefF method to fuse and optimize them and found that it can effectively improve the accuracy of distinguishing between the brain activity evoked by preferred music and neutral music (up to 98.38%). Our work provides an objective reference based on neuroimaging for the research and application of personalized music therapy.

Music processing and amusia

Music is a universal and important human trait, which is orchestrated by complex brain network centered in the temporal lobe but connecting broadly to multiple cortical and subcortical regions. In the human brain, music engages a widespread bilateral network of regions that govern auditory perception, syntactic and semantic processing, attention and memory, emotion and reward, and motor skills. The ability to perceive or produce music can be severely impaired either due to abnormal brain development or brain damage, leading to a condition called amusia. Modern neuroimaging studies of amusia have provided valuable knowledge about the structure and function of specific brain regions and white matter pathways that are crucial for music perception, highlighting the role of the right frontotemporal network in this process. In this chapter, we provide an overview on the neural basis of music processing in a healthy brain and review evidence obtained from the studies of congenital and acquired amusia.

Thalamocortical functional connectivity in patients with insomnia using resting-state fMRI

BACKGROUND

Insomnia is a common disorder that affects a vast number of patients; the hyperarousal theory of insomnia postulates that patients with insomnia are physiologically activated not only at nighttime but also during the daytime. We aimed to investigate the differences in the resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) of the thalamus with cortical areas between patients with insomnia disorder and healthy controls.

METHODS

All participants completed clinical questionnaires and underwent portable polysomnography and resting-state fMRI.

RESULTS

Patients in the insomnia group (n = 50) showed increased RSFC between the thalamus and right medial superior frontal area, bilateral middle temporal areas, left rectus and right parahippocampal areas compared with controls (n = 42) after controlling for age, sex and education level. Among the pairs that showed increased connectivity, several functional connections were negatively correlated with sleep efficiency, measured by polysomnography.Limitations: We used a small sample size.

CONCLUSION

We consider these results on increased thalamocortical hyperactivity in brain areas related to sensory functions as providing evidence for the hyperarousal theory of insomnia.

Presence of Three-Dimensional Sound Field Facilitates Listeners' Mood, Felt Emotion, and Respiration Rate When Listening to Music

Many studies have investigated the effects of music listening from the viewpoint of music features such as tempo or key by measuring psychological or psychophysiological responses. In addition, technologies for three-dimensional sound field (3D-SF) reproduction and binaural recording have been developed to induce a realistic sensation of sound. However, it is still unclear whether music listened to in the presence of 3D-SF is more impressive than in the absence of it. We hypothesized that the presence of a 3D-SF when listening to music facilitates listeners' moods, emotions for music, and physiological activities such as respiration rate. Here, we examined this hypothesis by evaluating differences between a reproduction condition with headphones (HD condition) and one with a 3D-SF reproduction system (3D-SF condition). We used a 3D-SF reproduction system based on the boundary surface control principle (BoSC system) to reproduce a sound field of music in the 3D-SF condition. Music in the 3D-SF condition was binaurally recorded through a dummy head in the BoSC reproduction room and reproduced with headphones in the HD condition. Therefore, music in the HD condition was auditorily as rich in information as that in the 3D-SF condition, but the 3D-sound field surrounding listeners was absent. We measured the respiration rate and heart rate of participants listening to acousmonium and pipe organ music. The participants rated their felt moods before and after they listened to music, and after they listened, they also rated their felt emotion. We found that the increase in respiration rate, the degree of decrease in well-being, and unpleasantness for both pieces in the 3D-SF condition were greater than in the HD condition. These results suggest that the presence of 3D-SF enhances changes in mood, felt emotion for music, and respiration rate when listening to music.

Music, mental health, and immunity

Music is a crucial element of everyday life and plays a central role in all human cultures: it is omnipresent and is listened to and played by persons of all ages, races, and ethnic backgrounds. But music is not simply entertainment: scientific research has shown that it can influence physiological processes that enhance physical and mental wellbeing. Consequently, it can have critical adaptive functions. Studies on patients diagnosed with mental disorders have shown a visible improvement in their mental health after interventions using music as primary tool. Other studies have demonstrated the benefits of music, including improved heart rate, motor skills, brain stimulation, and immune system enhancement. Mental and physical illnesses can be costly in terms of medications and psychological care, and music can offer a less expansive addition to an individual's treatment regimen. Interventions using music offers music-based activities in both a therapeutic environment (Music therapy) with the support of a trained professional, and non-therapeutic setting, providing an atmosphere that is positive, supportive, and proactive while learning non-invasive techniques to treat symptoms associated with various disorders – and possibly modulate the immune system.

The Emotional Effect of Background Music on Selective Attention of Adults

Daily activities can often be performed while listening to music, which could influence the ability to select relevant stimuli while ignoring distractors. Previous studies have established that the level of arousal of music (e.g., relaxing/stimulating) has the ability to modulate mood and affect the performance of cognitive tasks. The aim of this research was to explore the effect of relaxing and stimulating background music on selective attention. To this aim, 46 healthy adults performed a Stroop-type task in five different sound environments: relaxing music, stimulating music, relaxing music-matched noise, stimulating music-matched noise, and silence. Results showed that response times for incongruent and congruent trials as well as the Stroop interference effect were similar across conditions. Interestingly, results revealed a decreased error rate for congruent trials in the relaxing music condition as compared to the relaxing music-matched noise condition, and a similar tendency between relaxing music and stimulating music-matched noise. Taken together, the absence of difference between background music and silence conditions suggest that they have similar effects on adult’s selective attention capacities, while noise seems to have a detrimental impact, particularly when the task is easier cognitively. In conclusion, the type of sound stimulation in the environment seems to be a factor that can affect cognitive tasks performance.

What is Beauty?

PURPOSE

In the current study, the authors attempt to thoroughly investigate the concept of beauty from different perspectives in different historical periods and offer their personal thoughts about it.

METHODS

The authors performed a comprehensive and across-the-board literature review about 'beauty', including beauty from a philosophical perspective, beauty perception by human mind, beauty from a biopsychological perspective, beauty of the face, body and breast, models of beauty and beauty in cosmetic surgery.

RESULTS

From Plato to modern neuro-psychological studies, the concept of beauty has always been a theme for adamant debates and passionate thoughts. Different aspects of beauty, from intellectual to pure physical, have received a tremendous amount of attention. The true definition of the concept of beauty is still ambiguous, and there is not a unanimous explanation for it. It seems that the definition of beauty differs in every individual's mind and over the history of humankind.

CONCLUSION

Although beauty is a very important concept and the seek for achieving it is a very natural behavior, one must remember that the importance of beauty should not overshadow the fact that every human being is made up of similar internal organs. We strongly encourage the reader to look beyond the hedge, to be aware that each of us is made up of internal organs, beyond the external appearance. Level of Evidence V This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine Ratings, please refer to Table of Contents or online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266.

The role of expertise in the aesthetic evaluation of mathematical equations

There is a notion that mathematical equations can be considered aesthetic objects. However, whereas some aesthetic experiences are triggered primarily by the sensory properties of objects, for mathematical equations aesthetic judgments extend beyond their sensory qualities and are also informed by semantics and knowledge. Therefore, to the extent that expertise in mathematics represents the accumulation of domain knowledge, it should influence aesthetic judgments of equations. In a between-groups study design involving university students who majored in mathematics (i.e., experts) or not (i.e., laypeople), we found support for the hypothesis that mathematics majors exhibit more agreement in their aesthetic judgments of equations—reflecting a greater degree of shared variance driven by formal training in the domain. Furthermore, their judgments were driven more strongly by familiarity and meaning than was the case for laypeople. These results suggest that expertise via advanced training in mathematics alters (and sharpens) aesthetic judgments of mathematical equations.

Diffusion tensor imaging reveals neuronal microstructural changes in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome

Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) patients suffer from a variety of physical and neurological complaints indicating the central nervous system plays a role in ME/CFS pathophysiology. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has been used to study microstructural changes in neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, we evaluated DTI parameters to investigate microstructural abnormalities in ME/CFS patients. We estimated DTI parameters in 25 ME/CFS patients who met Fukuda criteria (ME/CFS_Fukuda ), 18 ME/CFS patients who met International Consensus Criteria (ICC) (ME/CFS_ICC ) only and 26 healthy control (HC) subjects. In addition to voxel-based DTI-parameter group comparisons, we performed voxel-based DTI-parameter interaction-with-group regressions with clinical and autonomic measures to test for abnormal regressions. Group comparisons between ME/CFS_ICC and HC detected significant clusters (a) with decreased axial diffusivity (p = .001) and mean diffusivity (p = .01) in the descending cortico-cerebellar tract in the midbrain and pons and (b) with increased transverse diffusivity in the medulla. The mode of anisotropy was significantly decreased (p = .001) in a cluster in the superior longitudinal fasciculus region. Voxel-based group comparisons between ME/CFS_Fukuda and HC did not detect significant clusters. For ME/CFS_ICC and HC, DTI parameter interaction-with-group regressions were abnormal for the clinical measures of information processing score, SF36 physical, sleep disturbance score and respiration rate in both grey and white matter regions. Our study demonstrated that DTI parameters are sensitive to microstructural changes in ME/CFS_ICC and could potentially act as an imaging biomarker of abnormal pathophysiology in ME/CFS. The study also shows that strict case definitions are essential in investigation of the pathophysiology of ME/CFS.

Analysis of cerebral blood flow entropy while listening to music with emotional content

Objective. Music is one of the most sublime stimuli that human beings can experience. Despite being just an acoustic wave that exerts little physical influence on a subject, it triggers profound changes in emotions and physiological states. This study explores the possibility of detecting subtle changes in cerebral blood flow velocity in response to emotional reactions produced by different musical stimuli using multiscale entropy analysis.Approach. Cerebral blood flow signals were successfully recorded for 16 subjects while performing five different musical tasks. The entropy of each signal was estimated using multiscale sample entropy.Main results. This method has been shown to be capable of revealing the complexity of the internal dynamics of different physiological systems, which cannot be appreciated with classic approaches based on entropy on a single scale.Significance. Significant differences in entropy were found between two of the tasks, which suggests that intense cognitive activities with emotional content cause a decrease in the entropy of cerebral haemodynamics.

Recognition of musical emotions in the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia

INTRODUCTION

Multiple investigations have revealed that patients with behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) experience difficulty recognizing emotional signals in multiple processing modalities (e.g., faces, prosody). Few studies have evaluated the recognition of musical emotions in these patients. This research aims to evaluate the ability of subjects with bvFTD to recognize musical stimuli with positive and negative emotions, in comparison with healthy subjects.

METHODS

bvFTD (n=12) and healthy control participants (n=24) underwent a test of musical emotion recognition: 56 fragments of piano music were randomly reproduced, 14 for each of the emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, and peacefulness).

RESULTS

In the subjects with bvFTD, a mean of correct answers of 23.6 (42.26%) was observed in contrast to the control subjects, where the average number of correct answers was 36.3 (64.8%). Statistically significant differences were found for each of the evaluated musical emotions and in the total score on the performed test (P<.01). The within-group analysis showed greater difficulty for both groups in recognizing negative musical emotions (sadness, fear), with the subjects with bvFTD exhibiting worse performance.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results indicate that the recognition of musical stimuli with positive (happiness, peacefulness) and negative (sadness, fear) emotions are compromised in patients with bvFTD. The processing of negative musical emotions is the most difficult for these individuals.

The Effects of Clinical Music Therapy on Resiliency in Adults Undergoing Infusion: A Randomized, Controlled Trial

CONTEXT

Eighty-seven patients newly diagnosed with lung, breast, or gastrointestinal cancer and undergoing chemotherapy in the infusion suite of a large urban hospital in New York City.

OBJECTIVE

Patients were enrolled in this study of music therapy's impact on resilience in coping with the impact of symptoms inclusive of symptom clustering.

METHODS

Patients were randomly assigned to three arms: clinical instrumental improvisation or clinical vocal improvisation 43 subjects to instrumental improvisation or vocal improvisation and 44 subjects to control. All subjects received a Medical Music Psychotherapy Assessment including psychosocial information and music preferences, pre-/post-Resilience Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Visual Analogue Scale/Faces Scale, and a pain-Color Analysis Scale. Interventions included 20-minute music therapy (MT) and two additional sessions.

RESULTS

Significant increases in Resilience Scale in MT groups after treatment with instrumental and vocal MT interventions equally potent-reflect average changes of 3.4 and 4.83 (P = 0.625), respectively. Although Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale scores showed little impact of MT on perceived anxiety/depression, a strong correlation is seen between vocal intervention and lower depression scores through Visual Analogue Scale-rendered postsessions. This yielded a significant decrease in pain levels immediately after MT, with the final session showing the most significant change in pain level. Resilience in enduring procedures is a necessary component of combating potential negative illness perception.

CONCLUSION

Our study shows MT's facility to propel resilience in patients newly diagnosed with cancer, particularly when promoting and pairing adaptation toward coping through the expression of perceived negative effects of emotional and physiological symptoms.