Individual Differences in Music Reward Experiences

Mas‐Herrero, Ernest; Marco-Pallarés, Josep; Lorenzo‐Seva, Urbano; Zatorre, Robert J.; Rodrı́guez-Fornells, Antoni

doi:10.1525/mp.2013.31.2.118

Cited by 303 publications

(351 citation statements)

References 102 publications

(110 reference statements)

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“…Forty-five university students participated in the experiment and were divided into three groups of 15 subjects (eight females and seven males). Participants were selected using the BMRQ, a psychometric instrument known to be a reliable indicator of interindividual variability in music-induced reward (18). In the first round of selection, the BMRQ was delivered to a population of 2,600 university students from Barcelona (33.8% males, M = 18.3, SD = 6.9) in their classrooms or by email in reply to an advertisement.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To reach this goal, we selected 45 healthy subjects who differed in their sensitivity to music reward using a previously developed psychometric instrument, the Barcelona Musical Reward Questionnaire (BMRQ) (18), which is known to be a reliable indicator of interindividual variability in music reward sensitivity. Three groups of subjects (musical anhedonia and average or high sensitivity to musical reward) engaged in two separate experimental sessions.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Neural correlates of specific musical anhedonia

Martínez‐Molina

Mas‐Herrero

Rodrı́guez-Fornells

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Although music is ubiquitous in human societies, there are some people for whom music holds no reward value despite normal perceptual ability and preserved reward-related responses in other domains. The study of these individuals with specific musical anhedonia may be crucial to understand better the neural correlates underlying musical reward. Previous neuroimaging studies have shown that musically induced pleasure may arise from the interaction between auditory cortical networks and mesolimbic reward networks. If such interaction is critical for music-induced pleasure to emerge, then those individuals who do not experience it should show alterations in the cortical-mesolimbic response. In the current study, we addressed this question using fMRI in three groups of 15 participants, each with different sensitivity to music reward. We demonstrate that the music anhedonic participants showed selective reduction of activity for music in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), but normal activation levels for a monetary gambling task. Furthermore, this group also exhibited decreased functional connectivity between the right auditory cortex and ventral striatum (including the NAcc). In contrast, individuals with greater than average response to music showed enhanced connectivity between these structures. Thus, our results suggest that specific musical anhedonia may be associated with a reduction in the interplay between the auditory cortex and the subcortical reward network, indicating a pivotal role of this interaction for the enjoyment of music.Without music, life would be a mistake.Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols T his quote highlights the importance of music for the life of most people. Indeed, although music is not a primary reward (such as food or sex), it is reckoned as one of the most important sources of pleasure in life. Furthermore, music has been present in human societies since prehistory (1), and most of the current literature on music psychology has described it as a universal reward for human beings (2). Its ubiquity and antiquity prove the importance of music in our society (3).Paradoxically, not everybody loves music: A small percentage of healthy individuals do not find music pleasurable, a phenomenon known as specific musical anhedonia (4). A detailed study on this population revealed that this phenomenon cannot be explained by perceptual problems [e.g., hearing impairment or specific impairment in perceptual capabilities, a condition known as amusia (5)] or by general anhedonia (lack of pleasure for all types of rewarding stimuli). When listening to music rated as pleasant by others, people with specific musical anhedonia showed a reduced emotional arousal as indexed by autonomic nervous system activity [in particular, skin conductance response (SCR) and heart rate measurements] compared with people having standard or high sensitivity to music. Notably, they showed normal responses to other types of reward [e.g., money (4)]. Therefore, individuals with specific musical anhedonia represent an idea...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural correlates of specific musical anhedonia

Martínez‐Molina

Mas‐Herrero

Rodrı́guez-Fornells

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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159

181

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“…The Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire (BMRQ; Mas-Herrero et al, 2013) is a 20-item, five-factor scale that measures facets of how individuals experience reward associated with music. Responses to item statements were made on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (completely disagree) to 5 (completely agree), and reported Cronbach's a range from .78 (social reward subscale) to .93 (sensory motor subscale).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Musebaq

et al. 2018

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MUSIC ENGAGEMENT IS COMPLEX AND IS INFLUENCEDby music training, capacity, preferences, and motivations. A multi-modular self-report instrument (the Music Use and Background Questionnaire, or MUSEBAQ) was developed to measure a diverse set of music engagement constructs. Based on earlier work, a hybrid approach of exploratory and confirmatory analyses was conducted across a series of three independent studies to establish reliability and validity of the modular tool. Module 1 (Musicianship) provides a brief assessment of formal and informal music knowledge and practice. Module 2 (Musical capacity) measures emotional sensitivity to music, listening sophistication, music memory and imagery, and personal commitment to music. Module 3 (Music preferences) captures preferences from six broad genres and utilizes adaptive reasoning to selectively expand subgenres when administered online. Module 4 (Motivations for music use) assesses musical transcendence, emotion regulation, social, and musical identity and expression. The MUSEBAQ offers researchers and practitioners a comprehensive, modular instrument that can be used in whole, or by module as required to capture an individual's level of engagement with music and to serve as a background questionnaire to measure and interpret the effects of dispositional differences in emotional reactions to music.

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“…In early cases of acquired musical anhedonia, the criterion for classification as musically anhedonic was simply self‐report: patients reported a loss of musical pleasure following brain damage. For musical anhedonia without brain damage, the standard measure is currently the Barcelona Musical Reward Questionnaire (BMRQ) . This questionnaire consists of 20 items on which individuals report their level of agreement (e.g., “I get emotional listening to certain pieces of music”).…”

Section: Musical Anhedoniamentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Belfi

Loui

2019

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

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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.

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Individual Differences in Music Reward Experiences

Cited by 303 publications

References 102 publications

Neural correlates of specific musical anhedonia

Neural correlates of specific musical anhedonia

Musebaq

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

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