Psychophysiology of Musical Emotions

This paper focuses on emotional reactions to music, taking the approach of correlating psychophysiological measures with dynamic changes in emotional reactions to music. A philosophical debate about musical emotions concerns whether music produces emotional changes in listeners (the "emotivist" position) or simply expresses emotions that listeners recognize in the music (the "cognitivist" position). Psychophysiological measures were recorded while listeners heard two excerpts chosen to represent each of three emotions: sad, fear, and happy. The measures covered a fairly wide spectrum of cardiac, vascular, electrodermal, and respiratory functions. The sad excerpts produced the largest changes in heart rate, blood pressure, skin conductance and temperature. The fear excerpts produced the largest changes in blood transit time and amplitude. The happy excerpts produced the largest changes in the measures of respiration. These emotion-specific physiological changes only partially replicated those found for non musical emotions. However, the physiological effects of music observed generally support the emotivist view of musical emotions.

[1]  P. Kivy.  Music Alone: Philosophical Reflections on the Purely Musical Experience , 1991 .

[2]  J. Cacioppo,et al.  The psychophysiology of emotion. , 1993 .

[3]  P. Ellsworth,et al.  The role of facial response in the experience of emotion. , 1979, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[4]  P. Ekman,et al.  Emotion and autonomic nervous system activity in the Minangkabau of west Sumatra. , 1992, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[5]  R. Zajonc,et al.  Emotions Research: Some Promising Questions and Some Questionable Promises , 1992 .

[6]  J. Singer,et al.  Cognitive, social, and physiological determinants of emotional state. , 1962, Psychological review.

[7]  J. Averill.  AUTONOMIC RESPONSE PATTERNS DURING SADNESS AND MIRTH , 1969 .

[8]  K. Hugdahl.  Psychophysiology: The Mind-Body Perspective , 1996 .

[9]  J. Singer,et al.  Cognitive, social, and physiological determinants of emotional state. , 1962 .

[10]  W. Jay Dowling,et al.  Emotion and Meaning , 1985 .

[11]  G. Stemmler,et al.  The autonomic differentiation of emotions revisited: convergent and discriminant validation. , 1989, Psychophysiology.

[12]  L. F. Barrett,et al.  Handbook of Emotions , 1993 .

[13]  P. Ekman,et al.  Voluntary facial action generates emotion-specific autonomic nervous system activity. , 1990, Psychophysiology.

[14]  Magda B. Arnold,et al.  The nature of emotion , 1968 .

[15]  F. Boiten,et al.  Autonomic response patterns during voluntary facial action. , 1996, Psychophysiology.

[16]  R. Levenson.  Autonomic Nervous System Differences among Emotions , 1992 .