Affective speech modulates a cortico-limbic network in real time

Live music stimulates the affective brain and emotionally entrains listeners in real time

“…The amygdala as the target of the neurofeedback loop seems thus only indirectly involved here, probably by functional connections between the amygdala and the AC, as discussed above. The AC however seems ideally suited for the brain-perception correlations, given the computational nature of the AC for emotion information integration ( 1 , 6 , 25 ).…”

“…A previous study reported amygdala effects in response to emotional music of about Δm ~ [0.080 0.085] (SD ~ 0.15) ( 3 ) suggesting a sample size of n = 27 to 30. A previous real-time imaging study ( 25 ) with amygdala feedback to live versus recorded affective voices suggested effects on amygdala activity of Δm ~ [0.57 0.66] (SD ~ [1.01 1.18]) suggesting a sample size of n = 21 to 36. Based on these estimated effects, we targeted a final sample size of n ~ 28 participants.…”

“…The limbic system provides relevant neural mechanisms to perform affective distinctions, such as discriminating complex affective meaning in the hippocampus (HC) ( 5 , 22 ) as well as processing socio-affective associations and music-related values in the orbitofrontal cortex ( 5 , 24 ). Furthermore, the amygdala (Amy) as a central hub in the limbic circuit might basically detect and register affective information encoded in sound and sound changes ( 25 ), and might prepare and coordinate other brain circuits for affective processing given its central position in emotional brain networks ( 14 , 26 ).…”

“…Previous setups that connected listeners’ brain responses with online music generation algorithms demonstrated general emotional and cognitive effects in listeners, such as reduced depressive symptoms ( 40 ), better memory performance ( 41 ), and increased brain alpha oscillations ( 42 ). We here introduced a setup that connects the live music performance of human piano players with the neural limbic responses in listeners based on a real-time functional MRI (fMRI) approach ( 25 ). This setup had four main features: 1) piano players were asked to modulate their live music performance on 12 pleasant and unpleasant musical pieces specifically composed for this experiment in order to increase and maximize amygdala activity in listeners in real time; 2) piano music was chosen because piano is a popular and familiar solo instrument, and pianists can play a melody simultaneously with harmonic accompaniment, both important for conveying and inducing emotions; 3) we chose the left amygdala as a target region for neurofeedback setup, as it has been shown to more reliably respond to emotional music than the right amygdala ( 1 , 6 ); and 4) we chose to compare neural activity during the live music performance with pre-recordings of the same musical pieces by the same pianists as the optimal baseline condition that allows to control for critical features of our experimental design.…”