Cortical Patterns of Pleasurable Musical Chills Revealed by High-Density EEG

Abstract

Music has the capacity to elicit strong positive feelings in humans by activating the brain's reward system. Because group emotional dynamics is a central concern of social neurosciences, the study of emotion in natural/ecological conditions is gaining interest. This study aimed to show that high-density EEG (HD-EEG) is able to reveal patterns of cerebral activities previously identified by fMRI or PET scans when the subject experiences pleasurable musical chills. We used HD-EEG to record participants (11 female, 7 male) while listening to their favorite pleasurable chill-inducing musical excerpts; they reported their subjective emotional state from low pleasure up to chills. HD-EEG results showed an increase of theta activity in the prefrontal cortex when arousal and emotional ratings increased, which are associated with orbitofrontal cortex activation localized using source localization algorithms. In addition, we identified two specific patterns of chills: a decreased theta activity in the right central region, which could reflect supplementary motor area activation during chills and may be related to rhythmic anticipation processing, and a decreased theta activity in the right temporal region, which may be related to musical appreciation and could reflect the right superior temporal gyrus activity. The alpha frontal/prefrontal asymmetry did not reflect the felt emotional pleasure, but the increased frontal beta to alpha ratio (measure of arousal) corresponded to increased emotional ratings. These results suggest that EEG may be a reliable method and a promising tool for the investigation of group musical pleasure through musical reward processing.

Musical components important for the Mozart K448 effect in epilepsy

“…These findings are concordant with past music research, which demonstrated that pleasant music was associated with increased frontal theta power 40 – 43 . Previous studies even proposed that frontal theta may represent a gating mechanism for the passage of information to the limbic system 41 and showed that the limbic system’s activity directly correlates with theta oscillations in the frontal cortex, particularly in response to emotionally arousing musical stimuli 40 , 42 , 43 .…”

“…Our investigation revealed enhanced frontal theta power following shifts from longer musical segments (i.e., 10-s or more) that was not present during transitions from shorter musical segment boundaries and during all transitions within the filtered version of K448 and Wagner’s Lohengrin Prelude to Act I. These findings are concordant with past music research, which demonstrated that pleasant music was associated with increased frontal theta power 40 – 43 . Previous studies even proposed that frontal theta may represent a gating mechanism for the passage of information to the limbic system 41 and showed that the limbic system’s activity directly correlates with theta oscillations in the frontal cortex, particularly in response to emotionally arousing musical stimuli 40 , 42 , 43 .…”

Interbrain emotional connection during music performances is driven by physical proximity and individual traits

“…We hypothesized that when pairs of participants simultaneously reported similar emotions, the simultaneous activation of similar cerebral structures would produce similar oscillatory patterns, and thus a higher interindividual cerebral coupling (e.g., overall oscillatory and reward system activity related to musical pleasure processing, measured on frontotemporal sites in the theta-frequency band). 55,56 We also expected higher physiological coupling when people reported similar degrees of emotions. In terms of the influence of the social context, we hypothesized that the closer the participants were physically, the higher the coupling would be.…”

Inter-Subject EEG Correlation Reflects Time-Varying Engagement with Natural Music

“…We do not suggest that listener engagement ceases or decreases at the musical climax, but rather that the specific nature of engagement at this point is not evident or indexed by ISC. Recent work by Chabin et al (2020) has used EEG oscillatory band power to identify neural correlates of chills and emotional pleasure during natural music listening, while Czepiel et al (2020) linked ISC of physiological responses to live music to musical elements such as structural segmentation boundaries. Thus, future work could consider using EEG-ISC alongside complementary analysis approaches and response modalities to more fully characterize listener experiences of music.…”