Brain connectivity reflects human aesthetic responses to music

Sachs, Matthew E.; Ellis, Robert J.; Schlaug, Gottfried; Loui, Psyche

doi:10.1093/scan/nsw009

Cited by 121 publications

(122 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Musical training is known to be associated with functional and anatomical enhancements of the superior temporal cortex (30,44,45), but it also has been shown to modulate striatocortical connectivity during music listening (46). Also relevant is that individual differences in structural connectivity in the tracts connecting the posterior STG with the anterior insula and medial prefrontal cortex have recently been associated with individual differences in music reward sensitivity (47). In future studies, it would be interesting to examine whether similar structural differences can be found in our sample in which we included individuals lacking reward responses to music specifically but with preserved capacities to experience pleasure from other reinforcers.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural correlates of specific musical anhedonia

Martínez‐Molina

Mas‐Herrero

Rodrı́guez-Fornells

et al. 2016

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

141

177

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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: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural correlates of specific musical anhedonia

Martínez‐Molina

Mas‐Herrero

Rodrı́guez-Fornells

et al. 2016

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

141

177

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“…Yet, there is also the whole domain of creativity [49], musical aesthetics [6,[50][51][52][53] and human interaction [54,55], which have been poorly investigated in relation to long-term music training. However, the topic is exemplary of a paradigm shift in current neuromusicological research, with a transition from a static conception of brain modules to a conception of reorganisational plasticity of the developing and adult brain [6].…”

Section: Neuroplasticity and Music: Macrostructural And Microstructurmentioning

confidence: 99%

Music and Brain Plasticity: How Sounds Trigger Neurogenerative Adaptations

Reybrouck¹,

Vuust²,

Brattico³

2018

Neuroplasticity - Insights of Neural Reorganization

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This contribution describes how music can trigger plastic changes in the brain. We elaborate on the concept of neuroplasticity by focussing on three major topics: the ontogenetic scale of musical development, the phenomenon of neuroplasticity as the outcome of interactions with the sounds and a short survey of clinical and therapeutic applications. First, a distinction is made between two scales of description: the larger evolutionary scale (phylogeny) and the scale of individual development (ontogeny). In this sense, listeners are not constrained by a static dispositional machinery, but they can be considered as dynamical systems that are able to adapt themselves in answer to the solicitations of a challenging environment. Second, the neuroplastic changes are considered both from a structural and functional level of adaptation, with a special focus on the recent findings from network science. The neural activity of the medial regions of the brain seems to become more synchronised when listening to music as compared to rest, and these changes become permanent in individuals such as musicians with year-long musical practice. As such, the question is raised as to the clinical and therapeutic applications of music as a trigger for enhancing the functionality of the brain, both in normal and impaired people.

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“…Some of them can be subsumed under the sensations of peak experience , flow and shivers or chills (Panksepp and Bernatzky, 2002; Grewe et al, 2007; Harrison and Loui, 2014) as evidence for particularly strong emotional experiences with music (Gabrielsson and Lindström, 2003; Gabrielsson, 2010). Such intensely pleasurable experiences are straightforward to be recorded behaviorally and have the additional advantage of producing characteristic physiological markers including changes in heart rate, respiration amplitude, and skin conductance (e.g., Blood and Zatorre, 2001; Sachs et al, 2016). They are associated mainly with changes in the autonomic nervous system and with metabolic activity in the cerebral regions, such as ventral striatum, amygdala, insula, and midbrain, usually devoted to motivation, emotion, arousal, and reward (Blood and Zatorre, 2001).…”

Section: Induction Of Emotions: Psychobiological Claimsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Music and Its Inductive Power: A Psychobiological and Evolutionary Approach to Musical Emotions

Reybrouck

Eerola

2017

Front. Psychol.

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The aim of this contribution is to broaden the concept of musical meaning from an abstract and emotionally neutral cognitive representation to an emotion-integrating description that is related to the evolutionary approach to music. Starting from the dispositional machinery for dealing with music as a temporal and sounding phenomenon, musical emotions are considered as adaptive responses to be aroused in human beings as the product of neural structures that are specialized for their processing. A theoretical and empirical background is provided in order to bring together the findings of music and emotion studies and the evolutionary approach to musical meaning. The theoretical grounding elaborates on the transition from referential to affective semantics, the distinction between expression and induction of emotions, and the tension between discrete-digital and analog-continuous processing of the sounds. The empirical background provides evidence from several findings such as infant-directed speech, referential emotive vocalizations and separation calls in lower mammals, the distinction between the acoustic and vehicle mode of sound perception, and the bodily and physiological reactions to the sounds. It is argued, finally, that early affective processing reflects the way emotions make our bodies feel, which in turn reflects on the emotions expressed and decoded. As such there is a dynamic tension between nature and nurture, which is reflected in the nature-nurture-nature cycle of musical sense-making.

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Brain connectivity reflects human aesthetic responses to music

Cited by 121 publications

References 35 publications

Neural correlates of specific musical anhedonia

Neural correlates of specific musical anhedonia

Music and Brain Plasticity: How Sounds Trigger Neurogenerative Adaptations

Music and Its Inductive Power: A Psychobiological and Evolutionary Approach to Musical Emotions

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