Chills As an Indicator of Individual Emotional Peaks

Grewe, Oliver; Kopiez, Reinhard; Altenmüller, Eckart

doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04783.x

Cited by 60 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 18 publications

(45 reference statements)

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“…Perhaps, then, we experience music as pleasurable when our musical expectations are either fulfilled or violated, and dopamine release may occur in anticipation of this reward (Gebauer et al, 2012;Salimpoor et al, 2011). Related sensations are often described as chills, goose bumps, or shivers, and they seem to correspond to sudden and unexpected changes or gradual expansions in the dynamics, texture, structure, tempo, and volume of the musical sound (see, for example, Blood & Zatorre, 2001;Gomez & Danuser, 2007;Grewe, Kopiez, & Altenmüller, 2009;Guhn, Hamm, & Zentner, 2007;Juslin & Västfjäll, 2008;Panksepp, 1995;Rickard, 2004). Most studies of peak pleasurable sensation have focused on sedentary listening, however, and these findings may not directly relate to EDM, which features dancing as an important element.…”

Section: Pleasurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent studies have shifted toward a more embodied approach to continuous musical pleasure and emphasized its close relation to the desire to move (Grewe et al, 2009;Janata, Tomic, & Haberman, 2012;Witek, 2013;Witek, Clarke, Wallentin, Kringelbach, & Vuust, 2014). Janata and colleagues (2012) found a correspondence between movement and enjoyment and propose that movement induction is closely connected to positive affects such as pleasure.…”

Section: Pleasurementioning

confidence: 99%

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Pleasurable and Intersubjectively Embodied Experiences of Electronic Dance Music

Solberg

Jensenius

2017

EMR

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How do dancers engage with electronic dance music (EDM) when dancing? This paper reports on an empirical study of dancers' pleasurable engagement with three structural properties of EDM: (1) breakdown, (2) build-up, and (3) drop. Sixteen participants danced to a DJ mix in a club-like environment, and the group's bodily activity was recorded with an infrared, marker-based motion capture system. After they danced, the subjects filled out questionnaires about the pleasure they experienced and their relative desire to move while dancing. Subsequent analyses revealed associations between the group's quantity of motion and self-reported experiences of pleasure. Associations were also found between certain sonic features and dynamic changes in the dancers' movements. Pronounced changes occurred in the group's quantity of motion during the breakdown, build-up, and drop sections, suggesting a high level of synchronization between the group and the structural properties of the music. The questionnaire confirmed this intersubjective agreement: participants perceived the musical passages consistently and marked the build-up and drop as particularly pleasurable and motivational in terms of dancing. Self-reports demonstrated that the presence and activity of other participants were also important in the shaping of one's own experience, thus supporting the idea of clubbing as an intersubjectively embodied experience.Submitted 2015 December 15; accepted 2016 June 13. KEYWORDS: EDM, groups in motion, pleasure, intersubjectivity, motion captureMUSIC has the unique ability to temporally synchronize us, both physically and affectively. This can be seen in the way in which a group of people are able to move "together" to music and also share similar pleasurable experiences of dancing together. Such experiences are often to be found on night-club dance floors, a setting in which people dance both individually and collectively to loud and energetic music while spectacular visual effects light up the darkened space.There are many studies of shared embodied experiences with electronic dance music (EDM) in club settings (Collin & Godfrey, 1997;Fikentscher, 2000;Garcia, 2011;Jackson, 2004;Malbon, 1999;Reynolds, 1998;Rietveld, 1998;Thornton, 1995;St John, 2004). These studies, however, have tended to focus on sociological and cultural aspects, such as identity, social interaction, gender, and sexuality, and they have mainly used interpretive readings and ethnography as points of departure. As far as we know, there are no existing empirical investigations into how people move to EDM, what happens affectively in such settings, and how these body movements and affective engagements are related to sonic features in particular.This paper reports on an experimental study of EDM dancers' experiences that was carried out in a controlled yet club-like environment. In it, we explore how the co-shaping of a shared experience happens in an EDM environment, as evidenced through motion capture data and subjective self-reports.The general resea...

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Section: Pleasurementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Pleasurementioning

confidence: 99%

Pleasurable and Intersubjectively Embodied Experiences of Electronic Dance Music

Solberg

Jensenius

2017

EMR

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“…Reports of RF changes during chills are, however, not consistent in the literature [28, 31, 32]. Finally, chills are also related to affective personality traits: In a study by Rickard [22], the mean number of experienced chills per minute was positively correlated with the NEO-FFI extraversion scale.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…It was reported to be related to very intense feelings, most frequently during film scenes and musical passages [30]. The phenomenon has since then repeatedly been used to precisely index moments of peak pleasure when studying music-evoked emotion [21, 26, 28, 29, 31, 32], and has consistently been found to correlate with physiological markers of increased arousal. A transient increase in HR [21, 28, 31, 32], as well as increased skin conductance level (SCL) [23, 28, 31, 33] during chills were found consistently across several studies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Aesthetic Chills on a Cardiac Signature of Emotionality

2015

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BackgroundPrevious studies have shown that a cardiac signature of emotionality (referred to as EK, which can be computed from the standard 12 lead electrocardiogram, ECG), predicts inter-individual differences in the tendency to experience and express positive emotion. Here, we investigated whether EK values can be transiently modulated during stimulation with participant-selected music pieces and film scenes that elicit strongly positive emotion.Methodology/Principal FindingsThe phenomenon of aesthetic chills, as indicated by measurable piloerection on the forearm, was used to accurately locate moments of peak emotional responses during stimulation. From 58 healthy participants, continuous EK values, heart rate, and respiratory frequency were recorded during stimulation with film scenes and music pieces, and were related to the aesthetic chills. EK values, as well as heart rate, increased significantly during moments of peak positive emotion accompanied by piloerection.Conclusions/SignificanceThese results are the first to provide evidence for an influence of momentary psychological state on a cardiac signature of emotional personality (as reflected in EK values). The possibility to modulate ECG amplitude signatures via stimulation with emotionally significant music pieces and film scenes opens up new perspectives for the use of emotional peak experiences in the therapy of disorders characterized by flattened emotionality, such as depression or schizoid personality disorder.

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“…Also among these alternatives is the possibility of emotional contagion, in which emotion is engendered in the listener corresponding to the perceived emotional content or intent of the music, such as a dissonant piece with harsh timbres and fast tempo suggesting anger. There is some evidence to support this induction of mood through perceived affect of musical stimuli [10] and listeners often report a sensation of 'chills' from particular pieces of music with a strong personal or emotional cachet [11] that may also be an indicator of emotional peak experiences. However most of these experiments have taken place in laboratory settings using prerecorded musical examples and on a one-to-one basis, with little consistency in subjects responses to given pieces of music.…”

Section: Music and Emotionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contagion of Physiological Correlates of Emotion between Performer and Audience: An Exploratory Study

Jaimovich

Coghlan

Knapp

2010

Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Bio-Inspired Human-Machine Interfaces and Healthcare Applications

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Abstract. Musical and performance experiences are often described as evoking powerful emotions, both in the listener/observer and player/performer. There is a significant body of literature describing these experiences along with related work examining physiological changes in the body during music listening and the physiological correlates of emotional state. However there are still open questions as to how and why, emotional responses may be triggered by a performance, how audiences may be influenced by a performers mental or emotional state and what effect the presence of an audience has on performers. We present a pilot study and some initial findings of our investigations into these questions, utilising a custom software and hardware system we have developed. Although this research is still at a pilot stage, our initial experiments point towards significant correlation between the physiological states of performers and audiences and we here present the system, the experiments and our preliminary data.

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Chills As an Indicator of Individual Emotional Peaks

Cited by 60 publications

References 18 publications

Pleasurable and Intersubjectively Embodied Experiences of Electronic Dance Music

Pleasurable and Intersubjectively Embodied Experiences of Electronic Dance Music

Effects of Aesthetic Chills on a Cardiac Signature of Emotionality

Contagion of Physiological Correlates of Emotion between Performer and Audience: An Exploratory Study

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