Abstract
The research on neural correlates of intentional emotion communication by the music performer is still limited. In this study, we attempted to evaluate EEG patterns recorded from musicians who were instructed to perform a simple piano score while manipulating their manner of play to express specific contrasting emotions and self-rate the emotion they reflected on the scales of arousal and valence. In the emotional playing task, participants were instructed to improvise variations in a manner by which the targeted emotion is communicated. In contrast, in the neutral playing task, participants were asked to play the same piece precisely as written to obtain data for control over general patterns of motor and sensory activation during playing. The spectral analysis of the signal was applied as an initial step to be able to connect findings to the wider field of music-emotion research. The experimental contrast of emotional playing vs. neutral playing was employed to probe brain activity patterns differentially involved in distinct emotional states. The tasks of emotional and neutral playing differed considerably with respect to the state of intended-to-transfer emotion arousal and valence levels. The EEG activity differences were observed between distressed/excited and neutral/depressed/relaxed playing.
Highlights
Music is known to have a capacity to impact mood, and it is ubiquitously used for this purpose as an affective medium
Juslin and Västfjäll (2008) [3] proposed six physiological mechanisms of emotion induction by music based on the existing body of literature, including brain stem reflexes, evaluative conditioning, emotional contagion, visual imagery, episodic memory, and musical expectancy
We attempted to evaluate EEG patterns recorded from musicians who were instructed to perform a simple piano score while manipulating their manner of play to express specific contrasting emotions and self-rate their communication of the target emotion on the scales of valence and arousal [11]
Summary
Music is known to have a capacity to impact mood, and it is ubiquitously used for this purpose as an affective medium. The perception, aesthetic assessment, and induction of specific emotions from a musical signal constitute a complex individual process [1,2]. Juslin and Västfjäll (2008) [3] proposed six physiological mechanisms of emotion induction by music based on the existing body of literature, including brain stem reflexes, evaluative conditioning, emotional contagion, visual imagery, episodic memory, and musical expectancy. The proposed mechanisms of emotion induction by music differ regarding many aspects including the information focus, cultural impact, dependence on musical structure, etc. These are important from the listener’s perspective. These are implicated in intended emotion transfer while performing
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