The effect of musical experience on emotional self-reports and psychophysiological responses to dissonance

Physiological Responses to Aversive and Non-aversive Audiovisual, Audio, and Visual Stimuli

We examined differences in physiological responses to aversive and non-aversive naturalistic audiovisual stimuli and their auditory and visual components within the same experiment. We recorded five physiological measures that have been shown to be sensitive to affect: electrocardiogram, electromyography (EMG) for zygomaticus major and corrugator supercilii muscles, electrodermal activity (EDA), and skin temperature. Valence and arousal ratings confirmed that aversive stimuli were more negative in valence and higher in arousal than non-aversive stimuli. Valence also showed an emotional enhancement effect for cross-modal integration. Both heart rate deceleration and facial EMG potentiation for corrugator supercilii were larger for aversive compared to non-aversive conditions for audiovisual stimuli and their auditory components, even after controlling for arousal. Facial EMG potentiation for zygomaticus major was greater for aversive compared to non-aversive conditions for audiovisual stimuli and EDA was greater for aversive compared to non-aversive conditions for visual stimuli. Neither of these effects remained significant after controlling for arousal. These findings provide a benchmark for examining atypical sensory processing of mundane aversive stimuli for clinical populations.

Late acute stress effects on decision-making: The magnified attraction to immediate gains in the iowa gambling task

Previous literature indicates that the later phases of the acute stress response may promote poor decision-making, characterized by riskier choices and a likely inclination towards immediate reward-seeking. However, all studies addressing the effect of this phase have treated decisional capacity as a singular dimension, without analyzing the underlying processes under decision-making. Employing the Value-Plus-Perseveration (VPP) RL model, based on Bayesian logic, this study aims to gain specific insights into how late phase of acute stress impacts the cognitive processes underpinning decision-making in the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), deciphering whether, as expected, gains are processed in a magnified manner. Seventy-three participants were randomly assigned to two groups, stress (N = 35) and control (N = 38). A virtual version of The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST-VR) was employed as a laboratory stressor. Decision-making was evaluated 35 minutes after the stressor onset, by means of the IGT. Results showed that stressed participants, in comparison to control group, displayed more perseverant and consistent decision-making, enhanced memory, and reinforcement learning capabilities, yet were guided by a greater attraction to decks offering immediate high gains. These results are analyzed with the understanding that in the IGT, short-term decisions focused on instant rewards are seen as counterproductive. This suggests that stress could limit the ability to switch to strategies that are more cautious and offer greater long-term benefits.

Audio-visual concert performances synchronize audience's heart rates

People enjoy engaging with music. Live music concerts provide an excellent option to investigate real-world music experiences, and at the same time, use neurophysiological synchrony to assess dynamic engagement. In the current study, we assessed engagement in a live concert setting using synchrony of cardiorespiratory measures, comparing inter-subject, stimulus-response, correlation, and phase coherence. As engagement might be enhanced in a concert setting by seeing musicians perform, we presented audiences with audio-only (AO) and audio-visual (AV) piano performances. Only correlation synchrony measures were above chance level. In comparing time-averaged synchrony across conditions, AV performances evoked a higher inter-subject correlation of heart rate (ISC-HR). However, synchrony averaged across music pieces did not correspond to self-reported engagement. On the other hand, time-resolved analyses show that synchronized deceleration-acceleration heart rate (HR) patterns, typical of an "orienting response" (an index of directed attention), occurred within music pieces at salient events of section boundaries. That is, seeing musicians perform heightened audience engagement at structurally important moments in Western classical music. Overall, we could show that multisensory information shapes dynamic engagement. By comparing different synchrony measures, we further highlight the advantages of time series analysis, specifically ISC-HR, as a robust measure of holistic musical listening experiences in naturalistic concert settings.

Long-term music instruction is partially associated with the development of socioemotional skills

This study aims to investigate the development of pitch-matching, rhythmic entrainment, and socioemotional skills in children who received formal music instruction and other non-music based after school programs. Eighty-three children, averaging 6.81 years old at baseline, were enrolled in either a music, sports, or no after-school program and followed over four years. The music program involved formal and systematic instruction in music theory, instrumental technique, and performance. Most control participants had no music education; however, in some instances, participants received minimal music education at school or at church. Musical development was measured using a pitch-matching and drumming-based rhythmic entrainment task. Sharing behavior was measured using a variation of the dictator game, and empathy was assessed using three different assessments: the Index of Empathy for Children and Adolescence (trait empathy), the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (theory of mind), and a Fiction Emotion-Matching task (state empathy). Results revealed no time-related associations in pitch-matching ability; however, formal music instruction improved pitch-matching relative to controls. On the contrary, improvements in rhythmic entrainment were best explained by age-related changes rather than music instruction. This study also found limited support for a positive association between formal music instruction and socioemotional skills. That is, individuals with formal music instruction exhibited improved emotion-matching relative to those with sports training. In terms of general socioemotional development, children's trait-level affective empathy did not improve over time, while sharing, theory of mind, and state empathy did. Additionally, pitch-matching and rhythmic entrainment did not reliably predict any socioemotional measures, with associations being trivial to small. While formal music instruction benefitted pitch-matching ability and emotion-matching to an audiovisual stimulus, it was not a significant predictor of rhythmic entrainment or broader socioemotional development. These findings suggest that the transfer of music training may be most evident in near or similar domains.

Effects of disliked music on psychophysiology

While previous research has shown the positive effects of music listening in response to one's favorite music, the negative effects of one's most disliked music have not gained much attention. In the current study, participants listened to three self-selected disliked musical pieces which evoked highly unpleasant feelings. As a contrast, three musical pieces were individually selected for each participant based on neutral liking ratings they provided to other participants' disliked music. During music listening, real-time ratings of subjective (dis)pleasure and simultaneous recordings of peripheral measures were obtained. Results showed that compared to neutral music, listening to disliked music evoked physiological reactions reflecting higher arousal (heart rate, skin conductance response, body temperature), disgust (levator labii muscle), anger (corrugator supercilii muscle), distress and grimacing (zygomaticus major muscle). The differences between conditions were most prominent during "very unpleasant" real-time ratings, showing peak responses for the disliked music. Hence, disliked music has a strenuous effect, as shown in strong physiological arousal responses and facial expression, reflecting the listener's attitude toward the music.

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.

Aesthetic and physiological effects of naturalistic multimodal music listening

Compared to audio only (AO) conditions, audiovisual (AV) information can enhance the aesthetic experience of a music performance. However, such beneficial multimodal effects have yet to be studied in naturalistic music performance settings. Further, peripheral physiological correlates of aesthetic experiences are not well-understood. Here, participants were invited to a concert hall for piano performances of Bach, Messiaen, and Beethoven, which were presented in two conditions: AV and AO. They rated their aesthetic experience (AE) after each piece (Experiment 1 and 2), while peripheral signals (cardiorespiratory measures, skin conductance, and facial muscle activity) were continuously measured (Experiment 2). Factor scores of AE were significantly higher in the AV condition in both experiments. LF/HF ratio, a heart rhythm that represents activation of the sympathetic nervous system, was higher in the AO condition, suggesting increased arousal, likely caused by less predictable sound onsets in the AO condition. We present partial evidence that breathing was faster and facial muscle activity was higher in the AV condition, suggesting that observing a performer's movements likely enhances motor mimicry in these more voluntary peripheral measures. Further, zygomaticus ('smiling') muscle activity was a significant predictor of AE. Thus, we suggest physiological measures are related to AE, but at different levels: the more involuntary measures (i.e., heart rhythms) may reflect more sensory aspects, while the more voluntary measures (i.e., muscular control of breathing and facial responses) may reflect the liking aspect of an AE. In summary, we replicate and extend previous findings that AV information enhances AE in a naturalistic music performance setting. We further show that a combination of self-report and peripheral measures benefit a meaningful assessment of AE in naturalistic music performance settings.

Later stages of acute stress impair reinforcement-learning and feedback sensitivity in decision making

Whereas the effects of the early stages of acute stress seem to improve learning and increase loss aversion in decision making, in later stages, the opposite has been found, an impairment in decision making probably due to higher reward-attraction, as the STARS approach suggests. This study aims to investigate the effects of the later stages of acute stress on decision making and its underlying processes using a computational model. We hypothesized that stress would affect underlying cognitive strategies during decision making. Ninety-five participants were randomly distributed into two groups, experimental (N = 46) and control (N = 49). A virtual version of The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) was used as a laboratory stressor. After 20minutes, decision making was assessed by using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). The Value-Plus-Preservation (VPP) RL computational model was used to extract decision-making components. As expected, the stressed participants showed deficits in IGT performance on reinforcement-learning and feedback sensitivity. However, there was no gains attraction. These results are discussed by considering that decision making in later stages of acute stress could be based on impairments in prefrontal cortex functioning.

Musicians and non-musicians show different preference profiles for single chords of varying harmonic complexity

The inverted U hypothesis in music predicts that listeners prefer intermediate levels of complexity. However, the shape of the liking response to harmonic complexity and the effect of musicianship remains unclear. Here, we tested whether the relationship between liking and harmonic complexity in single chords shows an inverted U shape and whether this U shape is different for musicians and non-musicians. We recorded these groups' liking ratings for four levels of harmonic complexity, indexed by their level of acoustic roughness, as well as several measures of inter-individual difference. Results showed that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between harmonic complexity and liking in both musicians and non-musicians, but that the shape of the U is different for the two groups. Non-musicians' U is more left-skewed, with peak liking for low harmonic complexity, while musicians' U is more right-skewed, with highest ratings for medium and low complexity. Furthermore, musicians who showed greater liking for medium compared to low complexity chords reported higher levels of active musical engagement and higher levels of openness to experience. This suggests that a combination of practical musical experience and personality is reflected in musicians' inverted U-shaped preference response to harmonic complexity in chords.

Auditory affective processing, musicality, and the development of misophonic reactions

Misophonia can be characterized both as a condition and as a negative affective experience. Misophonia is described as feeling irritation or disgust in response to hearing certain sounds, such as eating, drinking, gulping, and breathing. Although the earliest misophonic experiences are often described as occurring during childhood, relatively little is known about the developmental pathways that lead to individual variation in these experiences. This literature review discusses evidence of misophonic reactions during childhood and explores the possibility that early heightened sensitivities to both positive and negative sounds, such as to music, might indicate a vulnerability for misophonia and misophonic reactions. We will review when misophonia may develop, how it is distinguished from other auditory conditions (e.g., hyperacusis, phonophobia, or tinnitus), and how it relates to developmental disorders (e.g., autism spectrum disorder or Williams syndrome). Finally, we explore the possibility that children with heightened musicality could be more likely to experience misophonic reactions and develop misophonia.

Stressed individuals exhibit pessimistic bursting beliefs and a lower risk preference in the balloon analogue risk task

Stress alters decision-making by usually promoting risk-taking and reward-seeking, which could be advantageous in a context where risk is rewarded, such as the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). However, previous studies addressing this issue showed inconsistencies which could emerge from assessing decision-making as a single dimension. Our aim is to study through computational modelling how stress influences cognitive subprocesses of the decision-making during the BART. For this purpose, 94 healthy participants were submitted to BART, but only half were exposed to the virtual Trier Social Stress Test (TSST-VR). The Experimental-Weight Mean-Variance (EWMV) model was used to gain insight into the subprocesses involved in risk-taking during BART. Rather than reward-seeking, our results showed a pessimistic prior belief about the balloons bursting likelihood, and a lower risk preference in the stressed participants. This cautious attitude could be attributable to an alertness state promoted by stress. Yet, since risk is rewarded in BART, it could also evidence a maladaptive decision-making derived from learning difficulties and altered feedback-processing under stress.

Harmonicity aids hearing in noise

Hearing in noise is a core problem in audition, and a challenge for hearing-impaired listeners, yet the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. We explored whether harmonic frequency relations, a signature property of many communication sounds, aid hearing in noise for normal hearing listeners. We measured detection thresholds in noise for tones and speech synthesized to have harmonic or inharmonic spectra. Harmonic signals were consistently easier to detect than otherwise identical inharmonic signals. Harmonicity also improved discrimination of sounds in noise. The largest benefits were observed for two-note up-down "pitch" discrimination and melodic contour discrimination, both of which could be performed equally well with harmonic and inharmonic tones in quiet, but which showed large harmonic advantages in noise. The results show that harmonicity facilitates hearing in noise, plausibly by providing a noise-robust pitch cue that aids detection and discrimination.

Synchrony in the periphery: inter-subject correlation of physiological responses during live music concerts

While there is an increasing shift in cognitive science to study perception of naturalistic stimuli, this study extends this goal to naturalistic contexts by assessing physiological synchrony across audience members in a concert setting. Cardiorespiratory, skin conductance, and facial muscle responses were measured from participants attending live string quintet performances of full-length works from Viennese Classical, Contemporary, and Romantic styles. The concert was repeated on three consecutive days with different audiences. Using inter-subject correlation (ISC) to identify reliable responses to music, we found that highly correlated responses depicted typical signatures of physiological arousal. By relating physiological ISC to quantitative values of music features, logistic regressions revealed that high physiological synchrony was consistently predicted by faster tempi (which had higher ratings of arousing emotions and engagement), but only in Classical and Romantic styles (rated as familiar) and not the Contemporary style (rated as unfamiliar). Additionally, highly synchronised responses across all three concert audiences occurred during important structural moments in the music-identified using music theoretical analysis-namely at transitional passages, boundaries, and phrase repetitions. Overall, our results show that specific music features induce similar physiological responses across audience members in a concert context, which are linked to arousal, engagement, and familiarity.

Emotion elicitation during music listening: Subjective self-reports, facial expression, and autonomic reactivity

The use of music as emotional stimuli in experimental studies has grown in recent years. However, prior studies have mainly focused on self-reports and central measures, with a few works exploring the time course of psychophysiological correlates. Moreover, most of the previous research has been carried out either from the dimensional or categorical model but not combining both approaches to emotions. This study aimed to investigate subjective and physiological correlates of emotion elicitation through music, following the three-dimensional and the discrete emotion model. A sample of 50 healthy volunteers (25 women) took part in this experiment by listening to 42 film music excerpts (14 pleasant, 14 unpleasant, 14 neutral) presented during 8 s, while peripheral measures were continuously recorded. After music offset, affective dimensions (valence, energy arousal, and tension arousal) as well as discrete emotions (happiness, sadness, tenderness, fear, and anger) were collected using a 9-point scale. Results showed an effect of the music category on subjective and psychophysiological measures. In peripheral physiology, greater electrodermal activity, heart rate acceleration, and zygomatic responses, besides lower corrugator amplitude, were observed for pleasant excerpts in comparison to neutral and unpleasant music, from 2 s after stimulus onset until the end of its duration. Overall, our results add evidence for the efficacy of standardized film music excerpts to evoke powerful emotions in laboratory settings; thus, opening a path to explore interventions based on music in pathologies with underlying emotion deregulatory processes.

Early stages of the acute physical stress response increase loss aversion and learning on decision making: A Bayesian approach

When the cortisol peak is reached after a stressor people learn slower and make worse decisions in the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). However, the effects of the early stress response have not received as much attention. Since physical exercise is an important neuroendocrine stressor, this study aimed to fill this gap using an acute physical stressor. We hypothesized that this stress stage would promote an alertness that may increase feedback-sensitivity and, therefore, reward-learning during IGT, leading to a greater overall decision-making. 90 participants were divided into two groups: 47 were exposed to an acute intense physical stressor (cycloergometer) and 43 to a distractor 5 min before IGT. The Prospect Valence-Learning (PVL) computational model was applied to the IGT to investigate decision-making components (feedback-sensitivity, loss aversion, learning and choice consistency). There were no differences in the overall IGT performance, but physically stressed participants showed greater loss aversion and higher learning than controls. In addition, this loss aversion was linearly related to the learning and the choice consistency. These results would support the potentially beneficial role that early stages of stress could play in decision-making and suggest the need of studying the components that underlie this cognitive skill, rather than addressing it as a single dimension.

Physiological correlates of subjective emotional valence and arousal dynamics while viewing films

An exploration of the physiological correlates of subjective emotional states has theoretical and practical significance. Previous studies have reported that subjective valence and arousal correspond to facial electromyography (EMG) and electrodermal activity (EDA), respectively, across stimuli. However, the reported results were inconsistent, no study investigated subjective-physiological concordance across time, and measures of arousal remain controversial. To investigate these issues, while healthy adults (n = 20) viewed emotional films, we assessed overall and continuous ratings of valence and arousal and recorded EMG from the corrugator supercilii and zygomatic major, EDA from the palms and forehead, and nose-tip temperature. The corrugator and zygomatic EMG were negatively and positively associated with valence ratings, respectively, across stimuli and time. EDA (both sites) and nose-tip temperature were positively and negatively associated with arousal ratings, respectively, across stimuli and time. It is concluded that subjective emotional valence and arousal dynamics have specific physiological correlates.

Musical anhedonia and rewards of music listening: current advances and a proposed model

Music frequently elicits intense emotional responses, a phenomenon that has been scrutinized from multiple disciplines that span the sciences and arts. While most people enjoy music and find it rewarding, there is substantial individual variability in the experience and degree of music-induced reward. Here, we review current work on the neural substrates of hedonic responses to music. In particular, we focus the present review on specific musical anhedonia, a selective lack of pleasure from music. Based on evidence from neuroimaging, neuropsychology, and brain stimulation studies, we derive a neuroanatomical model of the experience of pleasure during music listening. Our model posits that hedonic responses to music are the result of connectivity between structures involved in auditory perception as a predictive process, and those involved in the brain's dopaminergic reward system. We conclude with open questions and implications of this model for future research on why humans appreciate music.

The effect of context and audio-visual modality on emotions elicited by a musical performance

In this work, we compared emotions induced by the same performance of Schubert Lieder during a live concert and in a laboratory viewing/listening setting to determine the extent to which laboratory research on affective reactions to music approximates real listening conditions in dedicated performances. We measured emotions experienced by volunteer members of an audience that attended a Lieder recital in a church (Context 1) and emotional reactions to an audio-video-recording of the same performance in a university lecture hall (Context 2). Three groups of participants were exposed to three presentation versions in Context 2: (1) an audio-visual recording, (2) an audio-only recording, and (3) a video-only recording. Participants achieved statistically higher levels of emotional convergence in the live performance than in the laboratory context, and the experience of particular emotions was determined by complex interactions between auditory and visual cues in the performance. This study demonstrates the contribution of the performance setting and the performers' appearance and nonverbal expression to emotion induction by music, encouraging further systematic research into the factors involved.

The Role of Left Hemispheric Structures for Emotional Processing as a Monitor of Bodily Reaction and Felt Chill - a Case-Control Functional Imaging Study

Background: The particular function of the left anterior human insula on emotional arousal has been illustrated with several case studies. Only after left hemispheric insula lesions, patients lose their pleasure in habits such as listening to joyful music. In functional magnetic resonance imaging studies (fMRI) activation in the left anterior insula has been associated with both processing of emotional valence and arousal. Tight interactions with different areas of the prefrontal cortex are involved in bodily response monitoring and cognitive appraisal of a given stimulus. Therefore, a large left hemispheric lesion including the left insula should impair the bodily response of chill experience (objective chill response) but leave the cognitive aspects of chill processing (subjective chill response) unaffected.

Methods: We investigated a patient (MC) with a complete left hemispheric media cerebral artery stroke, testing fMRI representation of pleasant (music) and unpleasant (harsh sounds) chill response.

Results: Although chill response to both pleasant and unpleasant rated sounds was confirmed verbally at passages also rated as chilling by healthy participants, skin conductance response was almost absent in MC. For a healthy control (HC) objective and subjective chill response was positively associated. Bilateral prefrontal fMRI-response to chill stimuli was sustained in MC whereas insula activation restricted to the right hemisphere. Diffusion imaging together with lesion maps revealed that left lateral tracts were completely damaged but medial prefrontal structures were intact.

Conclusion: With this case study we demonstrate how bodily response and cognitive appraisal are differentially participating in the internal monitor of chill response.

It's Sad but I Like It: The Neural Dissociation Between Musical Emotions and Liking in Experts and Laypersons

Emotion-related areas of the brain, such as the medial frontal cortices, amygdala, and striatum, are activated during listening to sad or happy music as well as during listening to pleasurable music. Indeed, in music, like in other arts, sad and happy emotions might co-exist and be distinct from emotions of pleasure or enjoyment. Here we aimed at discerning the neural correlates of sadness or happiness in music as opposed those related to musical enjoyment. We further investigated whether musical expertise modulates the neural activity during affective listening of music. To these aims, 13 musicians and 16 non-musicians brought to the lab their most liked and disliked musical pieces with a happy and sad connotation. Based on a listening test, we selected the most representative 18 sec excerpts of the emotions of interest for each individual participant. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) recordings were obtained while subjects listened to and rated the excerpts. The cortico-thalamo-striatal reward circuit and motor areas were more active during liked than disliked music, whereas only the auditory cortex and the right amygdala were more active for disliked over liked music. These results discern the brain structures responsible for the perception of sad and happy emotions in music from those related to musical enjoyment. We also obtained novel evidence for functional differences in the limbic system associated with musical expertise, by showing enhanced liking-related activity in fronto-insular and cingulate areas in musicians.

‘Striking a Sour Note’: Assessing the Influence of Consonant and Dissonant Music on Taste Perception

We report two experiments designed to investigate the consequences of manipulating the harmonic content of background music on taste perception. The participants in the present study evaluated samples of mixed fruit juice whilst listening to soundtracks that had either been harmonised with consonant or dissonant musical intervals. Each sample of juice was rated on three computer-based scales: One scale was anchored with the words sour and sweet, while the other two scales involved hedonic ratings of the music and of the juice. The results of an internet-based pre-test revealed that participants reliably associated the consonant soundtracks with sweetness and the dissonant soundtracks with sourness. The results of the on-site experiments demonstrated that participants rated the juices as tasting significantly sweeter in the consonant than in the dissonant music condition, irrespective of the melody or instrumentation that were evaluated. These results therefore provide empirical support for the claim that the crossmodal correspondence between a higher level musical attribute (namely, harmony) and basic taste can be used to modify the evaluation of the taste of a drink.

Experience Drives Synchronization: The phase and Amplitude Dynamics of Neural Oscillations to Musical Chords Are Differentially Modulated by Musical Expertise

Musical expertise is associated with structural and functional changes in the brain that underlie facilitated auditory perception. We investigated whether the phase locking (PL) and amplitude modulations (AM) of neuronal oscillations in response to musical chords are correlated with musical expertise and whether they reflect the prototypicality of chords in Western tonal music. To this aim, we recorded magnetoencephalography (MEG) while musicians and non-musicians were presented with common prototypical major and minor chords, and with uncommon, non-prototypical dissonant and mistuned chords, while watching a silenced movie. We then analyzed the PL and AM of ongoing oscillations in the theta (4–8 Hz) alpha (8–14 Hz), beta- (14–30 Hz) and gamma- (30–80 Hz) bands to these chords. We found that musical expertise was associated with strengthened PL of ongoing oscillations to chords over a wide frequency range during the first 300 ms from stimulus onset, as opposed to increased alpha-band AM to chords over temporal MEG channels. In musicians, the gamma-band PL was strongest to non-prototypical compared to other chords, while in non-musicians PL was strongest to minor chords. In both musicians and non-musicians the long-latency (> 200 ms) gamma-band PL was also sensitive to chord identity, and particularly to the amplitude modulations (beats) of the dissonant chord. These findings suggest that musical expertise modulates oscillation PL to musical chords and that the strength of these modulations is dependent on chord prototypicality.

Neuroplasticity beyond Sounds: Neural Adaptations Following Long-Term Musical Aesthetic Experiences

Capitalizing from neuroscience knowledge on how individuals are affected by the sound environment, we propose to adopt a cybernetic and ecological point of view on the musical aesthetic experience, which includes subprocesses, such as feature extraction and integration, early affective reactions and motor actions, style mastering and conceptualization, emotion and proprioception, evaluation and preference. In this perspective, the role of the listener/composer/performer is seen as that of an active “agent” coping in highly individual ways with the sounds. The findings concerning the neural adaptations in musicians, following long-term exposure to music, are then reviewed by keeping in mind the distinct subprocesses of a musical aesthetic experience. We conclude that these neural adaptations can be conceived of as the immediate and lifelong interactions with multisensorial stimuli (having a predominant auditory component), which result in lasting changes of the internal state of the “agent”. In a continuous loop, these changes affect, in turn, the subprocesses involved in a musical aesthetic experience, towards the final goal of achieving better perceptual, motor and proprioceptive responses to the immediate demands of the sounding environment. The resulting neural adaptations in musicians closely depend on the duration of the interactions, the starting age, the involvement of attention, the amount of motor practice and the musical genre played.

Cultural background influences implicit but not explicit sense of agency for the production of musical tones

The sense of agency is suggested to occur at both low and high levels by the involvement of sensorimotor processes and the contribution of retrospective inferences based on contextual cues. In the current study, we recruited western and non-western participants and examined the effect of pleasantness of action outcomes on both feeling of control ratings and intentional binding which refers to the perceived compression of the temporal delay between actions and outcomes. We found that both western and non-western groups showed greater feeling of control ratings for the consonant (pleasant) compared to dissonant (unpleasant) outcomes. The intentional binding effect, on the other hand, was stronger for the consonant compared to dissonant outcomes in the western group only. We discuss the results in relation to how cultural background might differentially influence the effect of outcome pleasantness on low and high levels of the sense of agency.

Gender and the performance of music

This study evaluates propositions that have appeared in the literature that music phenomena are gendered. Were they present in the musical "message," gendered qualities might be imparted at any of three stages of the music-communication interchange: the process of composition, its realization into sound by the performer, or imposed by the listener in the process of perception. The research was designed to obtain empirical evidence to enable evaluation of claims of the presence of gendering at these three stages. Three research hypotheses were identified and relevant literature of music behaviors and perception reviewed. New instruments of measurement were constructed to test the three hypotheses: (i) two listening sequences each containing 35 extracts from published recordings of compositions of the classical music repertoire, (ii) four "music characteristics" scales, with polarities defined by verbal descriptors designed to assess the dynamic and emotional valence of the musical extracts featured in the listening sequences. 69 musically-trained listeners listened to the two sequences and were asked to identify the sex of the performing artist of each musical extract; a second group of 23 listeners evaluated the extracts applying the four music characteristics scales. Results did not support claims that music structures are inherently gendered, nor proposals that performers impart their own-sex-specific qualities to the music. It is concluded that gendered properties are imposed subjectively by the listener, and these are primarily related to the tempo of the music.

Professional musicians listen differently to music

INTRODUCTION

Experience-based adaptation of emotional responses is an important faculty for cognitive and emotional functioning. Professional musicians represent an ideal model in which to elicit experience-driven changes in the emotional processing domain. The changes of the central representation of emotional arousal due to musical expertise are still largely unknown. The aim of the present study was to investigate the electroencephalogram (EEG) correlates of experience-driven changes in the domain of emotional arousal. Therefore, the differences in perceived (subjective arousal via ratings) and physiologically measured (EEG) arousal between amateur and professional musicians were examined.

PROCEDURE

A total of 15 professional and 19 amateur musicians listened to the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's 5th symphony (duration=∼7.4min), during which a continuous 76-channel EEG was recorded. In a second session, the participants evaluated their emotional arousal during listening. In a tonic analysis, we examined the average EEG data over the time course of the music piece. For a phasic analysis, a fast Fourier transform was performed and covariance maps of spectral power were computed in association with the subjective arousal ratings.

RESULTS

The subjective arousal ratings of the professional musicians were more consistent than those of the amateur musicians. In the tonic EEG analysis, a mid-frontal theta activity was observed in the professionals. In the phasic EEG, the professionals exhibited an increase of posterior alpha, central delta, and beta rhythm during high arousal.

DISCUSSION

Professionals exhibited different and/or more intense patterns of emotional activation when they listened to the music. The results of the present study underscore the impact of music experience on emotional reactions.

Getting into the musical zone: trait emotional intelligence and amount of practice predict flow in pianists

Being “in flow” or “in the zone” is defined as an extremely focused state of consciousness which occurs during intense engagement in an activity. In general, flow has been linked to peak performances (high achievement) and feelings of intense pleasure and happiness. However, empirical research on flow in music performance is scarce, although it may offer novel insights into the question of why musicians engage in musical activities for extensive periods of time. Here, we focused on individual differences in a group of 76 piano performance students and assessed their flow experience in piano performance as well as their trait emotional intelligence. Multiple regression analysis revealed that flow was predicted by the amount of daily practice and trait emotional intelligence. Other background variables (gender, age, duration of piano training and age of first piano training) were not predictive. To predict high achievement in piano performance (i.e., winning a prize in a piano competition), a seven-predictor logistic regression model was fitted to the data, and we found that the odds of winning a prize in a piano competition were predicted by the amount of daily practice and the age at which piano training began. Interestingly, a positive relationship between flow and high achievement was not supported. Further, we explored the role of musical emotions and musical styles in the induction of flow by a self-developed questionnaire. Results suggest that besides individual differences among pianists, specific structural and compositional features of musical pieces and related emotional expressions may facilitate flow experiences. Altogether, these findings highlight the role of emotion in the experience of flow during music performance and call for further experiments addressing emotion in relation to the performer and the music alike.

Pleasurable music affects reinforcement learning according to the listener

Mounting evidence links the enjoyment of music to brain areas implicated in emotion and the dopaminergic reward system. In particular, dopamine release in the ventral striatum seems to play a major role in the rewarding aspect of music listening. Striatal dopamine also influences reinforcement learning, such that subjects with greater dopamine efficacy learn better to approach rewards while those with lesser dopamine efficacy learn better to avoid punishments. In this study, we explored the practical implications of musical pleasure through its ability to facilitate reinforcement learning via non-pharmacological dopamine elicitation. Subjects from a wide variety of musical backgrounds chose a pleasurable and a neutral piece of music from an experimenter-compiled database, and then listened to one or both of these pieces (according to pseudo-random group assignment) as they performed a reinforcement learning task dependent on dopamine transmission. We assessed musical backgrounds as well as typical listening patterns with the new Helsinki Inventory of Music and Affective Behaviors (HIMAB), and separately investigated behavior for the training and test phases of the learning task. Subjects with more musical experience trained better with neutral music and tested better with pleasurable music, while those with less musical experience exhibited the opposite effect. HIMAB results regarding listening behaviors and subjective music ratings indicate that these effects arose from different listening styles: namely, more affective listening in non-musicians and more analytical listening in musicians. In conclusion, musical pleasure was able to influence task performance, and the shape of this effect depended on group and individual factors. These findings have implications in affective neuroscience, neuroaesthetics, learning, and music therapy.

The effects of autism and alexithymia on physiological and verbal responsiveness to music

It has been suggested that individuals with autism will be less responsive to the emotional content of music than typical individuals. With the aim of testing this hypothesis, a group of high-functioning adults on the autism spectrum was compared with a group of matched controls on two measures of emotional responsiveness to music, comprising physiological and verbal measures. Impairment in participants ability to verbalize their emotions (type-II alexithymia) was also assessed. The groups did not differ significantly on physiological responsiveness, but the autism group was significantly lower on the verbal measure. However, inclusion of the alexithymia score as a mediator variable nullified this group difference, suggesting that the difference was due not to absence of underlying emotional responsiveness to music in autism, but to a reduced ability to articulate it.

Toward a neural chronometry for the aesthetic experience of music

Music is often studied as a cognitive domain alongside language. The emotional aspects of music have also been shown to be important, but views on their nature diverge. For instance, the specific emotions that music induces and how they relate to emotional expression are still under debate. Here we propose a mental and neural chronometry of the aesthetic experience of music initiated and mediated by external and internal contexts such as intentionality, background mood, attention, and expertise. The initial stages necessary for an aesthetic experience of music are feature analysis, integration across modalities, and cognitive processing on the basis of long-term knowledge. These stages are common to individuals belonging to the same musical culture. The initial emotional reactions to music include the startle reflex, core "liking," and arousal. Subsequently, discrete emotions are perceived and induced. Presumably somatomotor processes synchronizing the body with the music also come into play here. The subsequent stages, in which cognitive, affective, and decisional processes intermingle, require controlled cross-modal neural processes to result in aesthetic emotions, aesthetic judgments, and conscious liking. These latter aesthetic stages often require attention, intentionality, and expertise for their full actualization.

Personality correlates of reporting Chinese words from the Deutsch "high-low" word illusion by Chinese-speaking people

OBJECTIVE

When English-speaking people listen to the Deutsch "high-low" word illusion, they report hearing English words. Whether Chinese-speaking people report Chinese words when listening to the illusion, or whether any reported words might be correlated with personality traits as previous investigations have demonstrated for listening to music in other cultures, is open to question. The present study aimed to address this.

METHODS

A total of 308 right-handed, healthy volunteers (177 women and 131 men) were given the illusion test and asked to answer the Zuckerman-Kuhlman personality questionnaire (ZKPQ). Their depressive tendency was measured by the Plutchik-van Praag depression inventory (PVP).

RESULTS

There was no gender effect regarding either the PVP score or the number of reported Chinese words from the illusion. Women scored higher on ZKPQ neuroticism-anxiety than men. The number of meaningful Chinese words reported was correlated with the ZKPQ impulsive sensation-seeking, aggression-hostility, and activity scores. Some words reported by participants who scored higher on these three traits were related in meaning to those scales.

CONCLUSION

Our preliminary results suggest that when Chinese-speaking people listen to the Deutsch "high-low" word illusion, they might use personality-related, specific cognitive schemata.