Emotion and Meaning in Music

Kraehenbuehl, David; Meyer, Leonard B.

doi:10.2307/843099

Cited by 14 publications

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“…However, it is interesting to note that often artists seem to implicitly exploit the aesthetic pleasure arising from the reduction of sensory uncertainty in their compositions. Musicians, for example, continuously and deliberately violate our predictions during the evolution of a musical piece, thus letting us experience aesthetic pleasure whenever we are able to insightfully restore predictability and solve sensory uncertainty by updating our predictions (Huron, 2006; Kraehenbuehl & Meyer, 1957; Sarasso, Neppi-Modona, et al, 2020). Visual artists also create subtle violations of our expectations in the style and content of their pieces, possibly as a means to elicit the transition from prediction violations to reinstated predictability (Kesner, 2014; Van de Cruys & Wagemans, 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nice and easy: Mismatch negativity responses reveal a significant correlation between aesthetic appreciation and perceptual learning.

Sarasso

Neppi-Mòdona

Rosaia

et al. 2022

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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Neurocomputational models of cognition have framed aesthetic appreciation within the domain of knowledge acquisition and learning, suggesting that aesthetic appreciation might be considered as a hedonic feedback on successful perceptual learning dynamics. Such hypothesis, however, has never been empirically demonstrated yet. In order to investigate the relationship between aesthetic appreciation and learning, we measured the EEG mismatch negativity (MMN) response to more or less appreciated musical intervals, which is considered as a reliable index of perceptual learning. To this end, we measured the MMN to frequency (Hz) standard and frequency deviant musical intervals (Experiment 1) while participants were asked to judge their beauty. For each single stimulus, we also computed an information-theoretic index of perceptual learning (Bayesian surprise). We found that more appreciated musical intervals were associated with a larger MMN responses, which, in turn, correlated with trial-by-trial fluctuations in Bayesian surprise (Experiment 1). Coherently with previous results, Bayesian surprise was also found to correlate with slower RTs in a detection task of the same stimuli, evidencing that motor behavior is inhibited in presence of surprising sensory states triggering perceptual learning (Experiment 2). Our results provide empirical evidence of the existence of a positive correlation between aesthetic appreciation and EEG indexes of perceptual learning. We argue that the sense of beauty might have evolved to signal the nervous system new sensory knowledge acquisition and motivate the individual to search for informationally profitable stimuli.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nice and easy: Mismatch negativity responses reveal a significant correlation between aesthetic appreciation and perceptual learning.

Sarasso

Neppi-Mòdona

Rosaia

et al. 2022

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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“…Despite the well‐documented impact of music on the brain's pleasure system and the important role that music listening plays in the lives of children and adolescents as a source of enjoyment (Erkkila & Saarikallio, 2007; Giacometti et al, 1981; Miranda & Claes, 2009; North et al, 2000), the neuroimaging studies focused on music listening conducted thus far have been focused mainly on adults. The only study with music listening in children (as distinguished from simple music discrimination tasks studies) that has been done by now has showed, by means of a general linear model, increased BOLD signal in the OFC in 10‐year‐old children when exposed to irregular chords (unexpected harmonic functions) versus regular chords (Koelsch et al, 2005), corroborating the hypothesized ability of musical expectancy violation to engage emotional processing (Kraehenbuehl & Meyer, 1957; Krumhansl, 1997). However, the stimuli used in that study consisted of artificial chord sequences, therefore partially missing ecological validity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Fasano

Cabral

Stevner

et al. 2022

Human Brain Mapping

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Music listening plays a pivotal role for children and adolescents, yet surprisingly few neuroimaging studies have studied the underlying functional dynamics. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to scan 17 preadolescents aged 10-11 years old while listening to music. We subsequently tracked the occurrence of functional brain networks over time by using a recent method that detects recurrent BOLD phase-locking states: the Leading Eigenvector Dynamics Analysis (LEiDA). In particular, we compared the probabilities of occurrence and switching profiles of different patterns of BOLD phase-locking between music and no music. Moreover, we used an adapted version of the Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire (BMRQ) to measure the music reward sensitivity of the participants. Our results showed significantly increased occurrence of a BOLD phase-locking pattern during music listening compared to no music, characterized by a phase-shift in the BOLD signals of the medial orbitofrontal and ventromedial prefrontal cortices -a brain subsystem associated to reward processing -from the rest of the brain. Moreover, we observed a significantly higher probability of switching to this pattern while listening to music. We also found a positive correlation between the individual musical reward sensitivity and the tendency to switch to this reward state during music.Our findings highlight the involvement of a brain subsystem involved in hedonic processing during music listening in the early adolescent brain. These results offer novel insight into the neural underpinnings of musical reward in early adolescence and may help us to understand the importance of music at this delicate age.

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Preserved Musical Semantic Memory in Semantic Dementia

Weinstein¹,

Koenig²,

Gunawardena³

et al. 2011

Arch Neurol

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Patient: A man with semantic dementia, as demonstrated by clinical, neuropsychological, and imaging studies.Main Outcome Measures: Music performance and magnetic resonance imaging results.Results: Despite profoundly impaired semantic memory for words and objects due to left temporal lobe atrophy, this semiprofessional musician was creative and expressive in demonstrating preserved musical knowledge. Conclusion:Long-term representations of words and objects in semantic memory may be dissociated from meaningful knowledge in other domains, such as music.

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Emotion and Meaning in Music

Cited by 14 publications

References 0 publications

Nice and easy: Mismatch negativity responses reveal a significant correlation between aesthetic appreciation and perceptual learning.

Nice and easy: Mismatch negativity responses reveal a significant correlation between aesthetic appreciation and perceptual learning.

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

Preserved Musical Semantic Memory in Semantic Dementia

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