Expectation violations in music increase physiological arousal

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Expectation violations in music increase physiological arousal Marcus Pearce1*, Marisa Doyne1, Geraint A. Wiggins1 and Joydeep Bhattacharya1 1 Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom Emotional and aesthetic experience of music are thought to be closely related to fulfillment and violation of a listener’s expectations. In particular, it has been proposed that expectation violations generate emotional and physical responses by increasing physiological arousal. We test the hypothesis that violations of pitch expectation introduced by new melodic structures increase arousal. Fourteen musically trained participants listened to a minimalist composition, Two Pages by Philip Glass (1968), which consists of 75 figures each comprising an isochronous melody composed from an alphabet of 5 notes. Each figure is repeated a fixed number of times (from 1 to 34). Electrodermal activity, a marker of physiological arousal, was measured using electrodes attached to the palmar surface of the index and middle fingers of the medial phalange of the left hand and recorded at 100 Hz using a constant voltage coupler connected via fibre optic cables to a 12 bit Analogue-Digital-Converter. Prior to analysis the data were down-sampled to 10 Hz, converted to conductance measures and z-scored for each participant individually. Epochs were extracted corresponding to the first and last appearance of each repeating figure and average skin conductance was computed across all samples in the epoch. Paired Wilcoxon tests (non-parametric tests used due to skewness in the data) indicate significantly higher skin conductance for the first repetition of a figure than for the last. The results demonstrate increases in physiological arousal when new melodic material is introduced in musical listening. We argue that these increases are due to violations of pitch expectation as predicted by cognitive theories of emotional and aesthetic experience of music. Funding: Supported by EPSRC. Keywords: Cognition, Music Conference: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Sessions: Neurophysiology of Cognition and Attention Citation: Pearce M, Doyne M, Wiggins GA and Bhattacharya J (2011). Expectation violations in music increase physiological arousal. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00443 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 25 Nov 2011; Published Online: 28 Nov 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Marcus Pearce, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, United Kingdom, marcus.pearce@qmul.ac.uk Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Marcus Pearce Marisa Doyne Geraint A Wiggins Joydeep Bhattacharya Google Marcus Pearce Marisa Doyne Geraint A Wiggins Joydeep Bhattacharya Google Scholar Marcus Pearce Marisa Doyne Geraint A Wiggins Joydeep Bhattacharya PubMed Marcus Pearce Marisa Doyne Geraint A Wiggins Joydeep Bhattacharya Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.