Electroencephalographic dynamics of musical emotion perception revealed by independent spectral components

Abstract

This study explores the electroencephalographic (EEG) correlates of emotional experience during music listening. Independent component analysis and analysis of variance were used to separate statistically independent spectral changes of the EEG in response to music-induced emotional processes. An independent brain process with equivalent dipole located in the fronto-central region exhibited distinct δ-band and θ-band power changes associated with self-reported emotional states. Specifically, the emotional valence was associated with δ-power decreases and θ-power increases in the frontal-central area, whereas the emotional arousal was accompanied by increases in both δ and θ powers. The resultant emotion-related component activations that were less interfered by the activities from other brain processes complement previous EEG studies of emotion perception to music.

Fusion of electroencephalographic dynamics and musical contents for estimating emotional responses in music listening

“…In this study, the electrodes placed over the fronto-central region were relatively discriminative for most of subjects (c.f. Figure 6), which was in line with the previous studies (Altenmuller et al, 2002; Lin et al, 2010a). Over the brain region, the lateralized power asymmetry (in the left-right direction) well characterized the changes of emotional states, which may be supported by the role of the frontal cortical lateralization in emotion processing (Altenmuller et al, 2002; Allen et al, 2004).…”

“…Such variability may introduce the disparity of informative EEG patterns across individuals or subgroups (Lin et al, 2010a, 2011). To estimate the emotional states, it is plausible to expect a subject-specific classification model that well learned from an individual would have an optimal classification accuracy (Lin et al, 2010b).…”

Crossmodal transfer of arousal, but not pleasantness, from the musical to the visual domain.

“…Another notable feature of our results is that a comparison of the shifts associated with the transfer of arousal and pleasantness (Figures 3b,d and 4b,d) clearly shows that the auditory-modulated arousal shifts outweigh the shifts in pleasantness. This may be interpreted as behavioral evidence for the dissociation of arousal and pleasantness in crossmodal emotional transfer, as earlier observed by electrophysiological studies on the unimodal processing of visual (Nielen et al, 2009) and musical (Lin et al, 2010) stimuli.…”

A survey of affective brain computer interfaces: principles, state-of-the-art, and challenges

“…[61] Recent studies on musically induced feelings of pleasure and displeasure found an increase of fronto-medial theta activity with more positive valence. [56,57] For emotionally arousing stimuli, increases in theta band power have been reported over frontal [53,62] and parietal regions. [52] Similarly, a theta increase was also reported during anxious personal object rumination compared to non-anxious object rumination.…”

“…[52][53][54] The theta rhythm (4 to 8 Hz) has been observed during a number of cognitive processes, and its most prominent form, fronto-medial theta, is believed to originate from limbic and associated structures in the medial prefrontal cortex. [55][56][57][58] These theta oscillations subserve central executive function, integrating affective and cognitive sources of information, as necessary in working memory tasks [59,60] as well as in action monitoring. [58] Concerning affect, early reports mention an increasing 'hedonic' theta activity after interruption of pleasurable stimulation, but studies in children between 6 months and 6 years of age showed increases in theta activity upon exposure to pleasurable stimuli.…”