Application paper

Psychological Mechanisms and Emotions Evoked by Music:

Activating Emotional Contagion, Brain Stem Response and Episodic Memory

 

Gonçalo Barradas

Introduction

A growing number of researchers in the fields of psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and musicology have shown an interest in the relationship between music and emotion. Studies by Schubert (1999), Gabrielsson and Lindstrom (2001), Gabrielsson and Juslin (2003), and Juslin and Laukka (2003) allowed for the association of musical features with different emotion dimensions. A complete list was presented by Livingstone and Brown (2005). When questioning which emotions are most often induced when we hear music, answers were provided in studies by Juslin and Laukka (2004) and Sloboda (1992), and more recently in a study by Zentner et al. (2008). Juslin, Liljestrom, Vastfjall, Barradas, and Silva (2008) also confirmed the presence of musical emotions in everyday life.

However, according to Juslin and Vastfjall (2008), there has been a certain neglect with regard to the mechanisms that underlie the induction of emotion in music. This neglect is based on a lack of studies that address the issues: How does music evoke emotions? How is it possible to isolate and study each mechanism alone? In this research plan, I suggest three experimental studies that could be tested within Juslin and Vastfjall’s (2008a) framework. My research would try to overcome limitations of the research done so far. With my project, I propose to isolate and study the emotional contagion, brain stem response and episodic memory mechanisms, which represented the three most self-reported causes of musical emotions episodes according to Juslin et al. (2008). I will study each of these mechanisms in order to find if these can explain, and how, most emotions induced by music in everydaylife.

Another goal of my studies is to reduce some of the disagreements in this domain. It’s crucial, for example, to explain and demonstrate that emotions music can induce can depend on the mechanism implicated. Can these mechanisms be activated at the same time? This is another fundamental issue that I will try to answer and study. Since differente factors in the music can activate differente mechanisms, it’s also true that these mechanisms are expected to draw a parallel with different types of music, listener environment, mood, and expression. In accordance with Table 4 in Juslin and Vastfall (2008), I hypothesize that the three mechanisms in this study can be activated independently, since all three focus on different sorts of information and involve different brain areas.

Each mechanism will be studied deeply, in order to produce consistent and clear results. Music manipulation will try to distinguish each mechanism and explain their brain activation patterns as well. Another issue still unsolved among researchers is whether musical emotions are similar or not to emotions in everyday life (Swanwick 1985). I hypothesize that my studies will find no significant differences. Several studies already found that music evokes mainly the same emotions as other sources (Gabrielsson 2001; Juslin & Laukka 2004).

The studies would be conducted in controlled laboratory settings, featuring self-report and psychophysiological measurement, in order to take better conclusions about causal relations. I hypothesize that field studies and experimental studies combined will give us a better basis and explanation of the induction of emotions process, while combining the interactions of each mechanism with another. Some mechanisms such as episodic memory will only be captured and better analyzed if we sample a wide variety of situations, which is only possible with field studies. On the other hand, brain stem responses will be better verified in laboratory.

 

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Conclusion

The planned studies would be relevant for researchers who look for better methods to analyse music and emotion and their underlying mechanisms. The characteristics of each mechanism presented in the BRECVEM theoretical framework need further laboratory experiments. It is crucial for the development of a set of diagnostic questions that can help researchers to determine which mechanism caused a particular emotion in a self-report context. This new framework can contribute to the resolution of many disagreements in the field, particularly about which emotions music can induce, how early they develop, time of induction, type of causal process, etc.

 

I expect that my results will show that all three mechanisms play crucial roles in the induction of musical emotions and that the mechanisms recruited by music are mostly the same as other stimuli that induce emotions. I also expect to be able to isolate each of the mechanisms. The manipulation of underlying mechanisms in a systematic manner is a crucial goal to achieve. If musical emotions are evoked through such mechanisms, is this also true to non-musical emotions? I expect to find in my results that most of non-musical emotional are evoked using quite the same mechanisms as musical emotions. Musical structures are easy to manipulate, and this advantage needs further exploration. It’s important to note that the understanding of these mechanisms can also contribute in many ways to other applications, such as music therapy. I think this methodology could offer a promising tool for emotion research in relation to music, as well as the study of emotions in general.