Musical Stimuli Research Articles

Shared neural mechanisms for processing emotions in music and vocalizations.

The neural mechanisms involved in the processing of vocalizations and music were compared, in order to observe possible similarities in the encoding of their emotional content. Positive and negative emotional vocalizations (e.g. laughing, crying) and violin musical stimuli digitally extracted from them were used as stimuli. They shared the melodic profile and main pitch/frequency characteristics. Participants listened to vocalizations or music while detecting rare auditory targets (bird tweeting, or piano's arpeggios). EEG was recorded from 128 sites. P2, N400 and Late positivity responses of ERPs were analysed. P2 peak was earlier in response to vocalizations, while P2 amplitude was larger to positive than negative stimuli. N400 was greater to negative than positive stimuli. LP was greater to vocalizations than music and to positive than negative stimuli. Source modelling using swLORETA suggested that, among N400 generators, the left middle temporal gyrus and the right uncus responded to both music and vocalizations, and more to negative than positive stimuli. The right parahippocampal region of the limbic lobe and the right cingulate cortex were active during music listening, while the left superior temporal cortex only responded to human vocalizations. Negative stimuli always activated the right middle temporal gyrus, whereas positively valenced stimuli always activated the inferior frontal cortex. The processing of emotional vocalizations and music seemed to involve common neural mechanisms. Notation obtained from acoustic signals showed how emotionally negative stimuli tended to be in Minor key, and positive stimuli in Major key, thus shedding some lights on the brain ability to understand music.

Pupil responses to pitch deviants reflect predictability of melodic sequences

Humans automatically detect events that, in deviating from their expectations, may signal prediction failure and a need to reorient behaviour. The pupil dilation response (PDR) to violations has been associated with subcortical signals of arousal and prediction resetting. However, it is unclear how the context in which a deviant occurs affects the size of the PDR. Using ecological musical stimuli that we characterised using a computational model, we showed that the PDR to pitch deviants is sensitive to contextual uncertainty (quantified as entropy), whereby the PDR was greater in low than high entropy contexts. The PDR was also positively correlated with the unexpectedness of notes. No effects of music expertise were found, suggesting a ceiling effect due to enculturation. These results show that the same sudden environmental change can lead to differing arousal levels depending on contextual factors, providing evidence for a sensitivity of the PDR to long-term context.

Functional Brain Response to Emotional Musical Stimuli in Depression, Using INLA Approach for Approximate Bayesian Inference.

Introduction:One of the vital skills which has an impact on emotional health and well-being is the regulation of emotions. In recent years, the neural basis of this process has been considered widely. One of the powerful tools for eliciting and regulating emotion is music. The Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) is part of the emotional neural circuitry involved in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). The current study uses functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to examine how neural processing of emotional musical auditory stimuli is changed within the ACC in depression. Statistical inference is conducted using a Bayesian Generalized Linear Model (GLM) approach with an Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation (INLA) algorithm.Methods:A new proposed Bayesian approach was applied for assessing functional response to emotional musical auditory stimuli in a block design fMRI data with 105 scans of two healthy and depressed women. In this Bayesian approach, Unweighted Graph-Laplacian (UGL) prior was chosen for spatial dependency, and autoregressive (AR) (1) process was used for temporal correlation via pre-weighting residuals. Finally, the inference was conducted using the Integrated Nested Laplace Approximation (INLA) algorithm in the R-INLA package.Results:The results revealed that positive music, as compared to negative music, elicits stronger activation within the ACC area in both healthy and depressed subjects. In comparing MDD and Never-Depressed (ND) individuals, a significant difference was found between MDD and ND groups in response to positive music vs negative music stimuli. The activations increase from baseline to positive stimuli and decrease from baseline to negative stimuli in ND subjects. Also, a significant decrease from baseline to positive stimuli was observed in MDD subjects, but there was no significant difference between baseline and negative stimuli.Conclusion:Assessing the pattern of activations within ACC in a depressed individual may be useful in retraining the ACC and improving its function, and lead to more effective therapeutic interventions.

Song and infant-directed speech facilitate word learning.

Two separate lines of research have examined the influence of song and infant-directed speech (IDS-a speech register that includes some melodic features) on language learning, suggesting that the use of musical attributes in speech input can enhance language learning. However, the benefits of these two types of stimuli have never been directly compared. In this investigation, we compared the effects of song and IDS for immediate word learning and long-term memory of the learned words. This study examines whether the highly musical stimuli (i.e., song) would facilitate language learning more than the less musical stimuli (i.e., IDS). English-speaking adults were administered a word learning task, with Mandarin Chinese words presented in adult-directed speech (ADS), IDS, or song. Participants' word learning performance was assessed immediately after the word learning task (immediate word learning) and then 1 day later (long-term memory). Results showed that both song and IDS facilitated immediate word learning and long-term memory of the words; however, this facilitative effect did not differ between IDS and song, suggesting that the relationship between the degree of musicality and language learning performance is not linear. In addition, song and IDS were found to facilitate the word association process (mapping a label to its referent) rather than the word recognition process. Finally, participants' confidence in their answers might not differ among ADS, IDS, and sung words.

Temporal order of musical keys and subjective estimates of time

The aim of this study was to observe the influence of the temporal order of musical keys involved in sudden modulations, which implies compositional developments in clockwise and counterclockwise directions of the circle of fifths, on subjective time estimations. Seventy-five undergraduate students from Universidade de Ribeirão Preto participated in this experiment, which consisted of listening to a modulating musical stimulus and retrospectively reproducing the duration with the aid of a stopwatch. The results showed that reverse sudden tonal modulation in the counterclockwise direction or, for instance, the temporal order from the original key of A-major to the arrival at the destination key of C-major, elicited shorter time estimations than the clockwise direction or, for instance, the temporal order from original key of C-major to the arrival at the destination key of A-major. These data were interpreted using the Expected Development Fraction model that describes the development of expectations when an inter-key distance is traversed during a certain time interval. This expected development is longer than the perceived duration, leading to the underestimation of time.

Os efeitos da musicalização para o desenvolvimento musical em bebês de zero a dois anos

O presente artigo investiga os efeitos provocados pela música em bebês de zero a dois anos e as possibilidades para o seu desenvolvimento físico, social e afetivo. Realizamos estudo bibliográfico apoiando-nos em Delalande, Gordon, Beyer, Ilari, dentre outros autores. Conceituamos bebê, música e musicalização numa perspectiva baseada no estágio sensório-motor, segundo Jean Piaget. Discorremos sobre a Teoria do Desenvolvimento Musical e a estimulação musical. Delineamos aspectos relevantes das práticas e estimulações musicais, suas prováveis causas e efeitos, salientando a influência da música no desenvolvimento infantil e o vital papel familiar e escolar nesse processo.

Group analysis of ongoing EEG data based on fast double-coupled nonnegative tensor decomposition

BackgroundOngoing EEG data are recorded as mixtures of stimulus-elicited EEG, spontaneous EEG and noises, which require advanced signal processing techniques for separation and analysis. Existing methods cannot simultaneously consider common and individual characteristics among/within subjects when extracting stimulus-elicited brain activities from ongoing EEG elicited by 512-s long modern tango music. New methodAiming to discover the commonly music-elicited brain activities among subjects, we provide a comprehensive framework based on fast double-coupled nonnegative tensor decomposition (FDC-NTD) algorithm. The proposed algorithm with a generalized model is capable of simultaneously decomposing EEG tensors into common and individual components. ResultsWith the proposed framework, the brain activities can be effectively extracted and sorted into the clusters of interest. The proposed algorithm based on the generalized model achieved higher fittings and stronger robustness. In addition to the distribution of centro-parietal and occipito-parietal regions with theta and alpha oscillations, the music-elicited brain activities were also located in the frontal region and distributed in the 4∼11 Hz band. Comparison with existing method(s)The present study, by providing a solution of how to separate common stimulus-elicited brain activities using coupled tensor decomposition, has shed new light on the processing and analysis of ongoing EEG data in multi-subject level. It can also reveal more links between brain responses and the continuous musical stimulus. ConclusionsThe proposed framework based on coupled tensor decomposition can be successfully applied to group analysis of ongoing EEG data, as it can be reliably inferred that those brain activities we obtained are associated with musical stimulus.

Analysis of the Movement-Inducing Effects of Music through the Fractality of Head Sway during Standstill

The links between music and human movement have been shown to provide insight into crucial aspects of human’s perception, cognition, and sensorimotor systems. In this study, we examined the influence of music on movement during standstill, aiming at further characterizing the correspondences between movement, music, and perception, by analyzing head sway fractality. Eighty seven participants were asked to stand as still as possible for 500 seconds while being presented with alternating silence and audio stimuli. The audio stimuli were all rhythmic in nature, ranging from a metronome track to complex electronic dance music. The head position of each participant was captured with an optical motion capture system. Long-range correlations of head movement were estimated by detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA). Results agree with previous work on the movement-inducing effect of music, showing significantly greater head sway and lower head sway fractality during the music stimuli. In addition, patterns across stimuli suggest a two-way adaptation process to the effects of music, with musical stimuli influencing head sway while at the same time fractality modulated movement responses. Results indicate that fluctuations in head movement in both conditions exhibit long-range correlations, suggesting that the effects of music on head movement depended not only on the value of the most recent measured intervals, but also on the values of those intervals at distant times.

Comparison of music stimuli to support mindfulness meditation

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of and preference for different auditory stimuli in supporting mindfulness meditation. Undergraduate non-musicians ( N = 57) listened to four different auditory stimuli guiding them in a mindfulness meditation: script only (i.e., Script), steady beat (i.e., Beat), beat and harmonic progression (i.e., Harmony), and beat, harmony, and melody (i.e., Melody). This study used a within-subjects repeated-measures design with the four conditions counterbalanced and randomized across participants. Participants rated responses using the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), completed the Absorption in Music Scale (AIMS), and ranked auditory stimuli according to preference and usefulness for mindfulness meditation. A repeated-measures analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) on the MAAS scores, using the AIMS as a covariate, indicated no statistically significant difference between auditory stimuli. However, with the AIMS removed, the analysis revealed significant differences between stimuli, indicating that levels of absorption in music may moderate participants’ responses to auditory stimuli for mindfulness meditation. Friedman analyses of variance (ANOVAs) and post hoc analyses indicated that participant rankings of usefulness and preference were significantly different among conditions, with the Melody and Harmony conditions ranked highest.

Influence of modern sound environment on the functional state of the human body

Sound environment is an essential sensory stimuli influencing on the all functional systems of the body. The nature of this influence depends not only on the volume, but also on the whole complex of factors affecting the subjective perception of sound. The article describes the effect of different noise and music stimuli on health and functional state of the human body, the importance of noise sensitivity due to the severity of the composition offunctional changes.

Medicine’s Melodies: On the Costs & Benefits of Music, Soundscapes, & Noise in Healthcare Settings

A large and growing body of empirical research now demonstrates the positive impact that music and other auditory stimuli (such as nature soundscapes) can have across the entire spectrum of the healthcare ecosystem. From the point of entry and onward to the operating room/theatre, in the peri-operational environment, patient wards, and medical waiting rooms, music affects all of those who hear it: Patients, their families, surgeons, caregivers, and hospital staff alike. In the age of the “experience economy,” where patients are considered both guests and consumers, private healthcare is increasingly starting to focus on customer satisfaction, and its impact on both financial performance and (not unrelated) health outcomes. In this review, we summarize the latest evidence concerning the impact of music, soundscapes, and noise, on medical outcomes and healthcare provision. We highlight the importance of the auditory (and, ultimately, the multisensory) environment, not only for health and well-being, but also in terms of improving patient satisfaction and managing costs.KEYWORDS: MUSIC; MEDICINE; ATMOSPHERICS; SOUNDSCAPES

Neural tracking of musical rhythm reflected in the autonomic nervous system

Humans start responding to music even before birth, and one particular measure, heart rate variability (HRV), reflecting the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) function, has been shown to respond to a music stimulus and to music therapy in the NICU. However, whether and how HRV is related to musical rhythm processing has not been examined. A group of adults (N = 15) passively listened to duple and triple rhythmic patterns while we measured their neural tracking of the rhythmic patterns and PNS function simultaneously using MEG and ECG. Results showed that adults’ neural tracking of beat level rhythm is 2.5 times stronger than their tracking of meter level rhythm, regardless of the energy of the beat and meter in the stimulus. Moreover, this ratio is significantly related to HRV across individuals. That is, the stronger an individual’s brain tracks the meter level rhythm, the higher the HRV, indicating a higher level PNS function (i.e., lower stress). This relation is not affected by an individual’s experience with music training. Data collection in infants (7-month and 11-month) is currently ongoing and the results will be discussed in relation to the adult findings.

Music and wine tasting: an experimental neuromarketing study

PurposeMusic has a priming effect on product selection. The purpose of this paper is to extend the current understanding on this issue using an experimental design incorporating behavioural and brainwave data.Design/methodology/approachAn experiment with 40 participants was conducted to explore how and why wine tasting preferences would be primed by different genres of musical stimuli. Electroencephalographic measurement was adopted to measure participant brainwave activity in two experiments, each involving two rounds of wine tasting, and the treatment was administered between the two rounds.FindingsSignificant associations between the musical stimulus genre and participant change in wine selection were found, and the musical stimuli resulted in different brainwave activities because participant β and γ wave activities significantly differed in the first and second wine tasting rounds. Correlational analyses indicated that α, β and γ wave activities generated by the musical stimuli were significantly but negatively correlated with α wave activity. α wave activity in the musical stimulus phases was significantly negatively correlated with β wave activity in the second round of wine tasting, and the other associations were significant and positive.Originality/valueThis study highlighted the priming effect of musical stimuli in wine tasting. Empirical evidence derived from experimental research was analysed with behavioural and brainwave data. This study’s original contribution is that it explored wine tasting preferences from a neuromarketing perspective. The results of this study can provide empirical evidence on how to effectively use music in marketing strategies.

Comparing Brain Responses to Music and Language Stimuli to Detect Consciousness

To determine whether neural responses to music and language stimuli identify consciousness in patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). We hypothesized that neural responses to music stimuli identify consciousness more reliably than do responses to language stimuli.

Anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex response to systematically controlled tonal dissonance during passive music listening

Several studies have attempted to investigate how the brain codes emotional value when processing music of contrasting levels of dissonance; however, the lack of control over specific musical structural characteristics (i.e., dynamics, rhythm, melodic contour or instrumental timbre), which are known to affect perceived dissonance, rendered results difficult to interpret. To account for this, we used functional imaging with an optimized control of the musical structure to obtain a finer characterization of brain activity in response to tonal dissonance. Behavioral findings supported previous evidence for an association between increased dissonance and negative emotion. Results further demonstrated that the manipulation of tonal dissonance through systematically controlled changes in interval content elicited contrasting valence ratings but no significant effects on either arousal or potency. Neuroscientific findings showed an engagement of the left medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the left rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) while participants listened to dissonant compared to consonant music, converging with studies that have proposed a core role of these regions during conflict monitoring (detection and resolution), and in the appraisal of negative emotion and fear‐related information. Both the left and right primary auditory cortices showed stronger functional connectivity with the ACC during the dissonant portion of the task, implying a demand for greater information integration when processing negatively valenced musical stimuli. This study demonstrated that the systematic control of musical dissonance could be applied to isolate valence from the arousal dimension, facilitating a novel access to the neural representation of negative emotion.

Effects of Audio–Visual Stimulation Automatically Controlled by the Bioelectric Potentials from Human Brain and Heart

We have compared the effects of open-loop and closed-loop audio–visual stimulation (AVS) generated on-line on the basis of subjects’ bioelectrical activity. In the first experiment, volunteers were presented with closed-loop AVS consisting of photic- and music-like stimuli generated by transformation of the current parameters of subjects’ electroencephalogram (EEG) and heart rhythm. In the second experiment, prearranged composition of photic and musical stimuli was used without feedback from the current bioelectric activity of the subjects. It has been found that the most pronounced shifts in objective and subjective indicators, such as the maximum increase in the EEG α rhythm power relative to the background, positive emotional reactions, and shifts in the functional state of the body, are recorded when AVS is controlled by the current electrophysiological characteristics of the subjects. These effects result from the involvement of interoceptive mechanisms in the system of mechanisms responsible for normalization of human functional state under AVS, i.e., the mechanisms of multisensory integration and neuroplasticity and the resonance mechanisms of the brain.

Mental Control in Musical Imagery: A Dual Component Model.

Hearing music in your head is a ubiquitous experience, but the role mental control plays in these experiences has not been deeply addressed. In this conceptual analysis, a dual-component model of mental control in musical imagery experiences is developed and discussed. The first component, initiation, refers to whether the musical imagery experience began voluntarily or involuntarily. The second component, management, refers to instances of control that occur after the experience has begun (e.g., changing the song, stopping the experience). Given the complex nature of this inner experience, we propose a new model combining and integrating four literatures: lab-based auditory imagery research using musical stimuli; involuntary musical imagery; mental rehearsal and composition in musicians; and in vivo studies of musical imagery in everyday environments. These literatures support the contention that mental control of musical imagery is multi-faceted. Future research should investigate these two components of mental control and better integrate the diverse literatures on musical imagery.

Relevance of stimuli and test environment in the perceptual evaluation of car audio systems

The increasing commercial relevance of automotive audio systems has led to an increased interest in the reliable evaluation of the sound quality of these systems. For this contribution, the sound quality of a wide range of different car audio systems was evaluated by means of acoustic measurements and listening tests based on binaural recordings of music. As human perception is influenced by a multitude of sensory impressions, the question arose whether these listening tests could be conducted in a laboratory or whether a more realistic environment is needed to obtain valid results. Accordingly, in a between-subjects-design, the same set of stimuli was evaluated in two test environments: a listening laboratory and a driving simulator. Aspects to be considered when selecting music material for perceptual evaluations in studies are presented. The relationship of acoustic measurements, the musical stimuli and the results of the perception experiments is discussed. No relevant differences between the results of the two test environments were observed. However, the results showed listener preferences concerning the music excerpts used as well as distinct interaction effects between the factors song and audio system.

When sounds, colors, and shapes meet: Investigating children’s audiovisual art in response to classical music

This study was designed to investigate children’s audiovisual art, following intuitive listening to complete classical works from different historical periods. The study aimed to examine the effect of different musical stimuli on children’s audiovisual output. Two related questions were asked: (1) How do children visually and verbally represent music from different historical periods? (2) What musical and extra-musical elements are represented? Participants were 181 second graders (age 7.0–8.5). Three compositions were presented: a 12th-century anonymous choral from the liturgical drama “ Danielis Ludus,” Chopin’s prelude op. 28 no. 10, and Bartók’s “ Melody in the Mist” Vol. 4 no. 107, from “ Mikrokosmos.” Each composition is based on distinct musical parameters: vocal timbre, melodic contour, and texture alternations, respectively. Data consisted of 495 audio-graphic productions and related accounts. Analysis progressed in three stages abbreviated MSC: Morphological dimensions, focusing on type of symbols employed; Structural dimensions, focusing on the overall graphical design; and Conceptual dimensions focusing on the generic meanings of the productions. Results indicated significant differences in children’s reactions to each of the three compositions, showing that MSC dimensions are influenced by the type of music presented and that differences in MSC dimensions are statistically significant. Experiencing “audiovisuology” in school is one way of promoting art integration.

Group-representative functional network estimation from multi-subject fMRI data via MRF-based image segmentation

Background and objectiveThere has been growing interest in using functional connectivity patterns, determined from fMRI data to characterize groups of individuals exhibiting common traits. However, the present challenge lies in efficient and accurate identification of distinct patterns observed consistently across multiple subjects. Existing approaches either impose strong assumptions, require aligning images before processing, or require data-intensive machine learning algorithms with manually labeled training datasets. In this paper, we propose a more principled and flexible approach to address this. MethodsOur approach redefines the problem of estimating the group-representative functional network as an image segmentation problem. After employing an improved clustering-based ICA scheme to pre-process the dataset of individual functional network images, we use a maximum a posteriori–Markov random field (MAP-MRF) framework to solve the image segmentation problem. In this framework, we propose a probabilistic model of the individual pixels of the fMRI data, with the model involving a latent group-representative functional network image. Given an observed dataset, we apply a novel and efficient variational Bayes algorithm to recover the associated latent group image. Our methodology seeks to overcome limitations in more traditional schemes by exploiting spatial relationships underlying the connectivity maps and accounting for uncertainty in the estimation process. ResultsWe validate our approach using synthetic, simulated and real data. First, we generate datasets from the proposed forward model with subject-specific binary masking and measurement noise, as well as from a variant of the model without measurement noise. We use both datasets to evaluate our model, along with two algorithms: coordinate-ascent algorithm and variational Bayes algorithm. We conclude that our proposed model with variational Bayes outperforms other competitors, even under model-misspecification. Using variational Bayes offers a significant improvement in performance, with almost no additional computational overhead. We next test our approach on simulated fMRI data. We show our approach is robust to initialization and can recover a solution close to the ground truth. Finally, we apply our proposed methodology along with baselines to a real dataset of fMRI recordings of individuals from two groups, a control group and a group suffering from depression, with recordings made while individuals were subjected to musical stimuli. Our methodology is able to identify group differences that are less clear under competing methods. ConclusionsOur model-based approach demonstrates the advantage of probabilistic models and modern algorithms that account for uncertainty in accurate identification of group-representative connectivity maps. The variational Bayes methodology yields highly accurate results without increasing the computational load compared to traditional methods. In addition, it is robust to model misspecification, and increases the ability to avoid local optima in the solution.