Inferior colliculus activity correlates with subjective unpleasantness of dissonant music
Stand-By Time
Thursday, June 29, 2017: 12:45 PM - 2:45 PMSubmission No:
3405
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
On Display:
Wednesday, June 28 & Thursday, June 29
Authors:
Seung-Goo Kim1, Thomas Fritz1,2, Jöran Lepsien1, Karsten Mueller1
Institutions:
1Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany, 2Institute for Psychoacoustics and Electronic Music, University of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium
First Author:
Seung-Goo Kim
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Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
Leipzig, Germany
Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
Leipzig, Germany
Introduction:
Harmony is a fundamental element of music. In particular, it was demonstrated that dissonant music universally evokes unpleasant emotion even without any exposure to Western polyphonic music (Fritz et al. 2009). Detection of dissonance is known to originate from the brainstem level (Bidelman and Krishnan 2009). Subjective perception of emotional valance due to dissonance in music was found to correlate with gray matter density in the inferior colliculus (IC) across participants (Fritz et al. 2013). Phase-locked brainstem responses to musical intervals also demonstrated high association with the subjective preference to consonant over dissonant intervals (Bones et al. 2014).
Although plausible, functional neuroimaging measures that correlate with subjective perception of unpleasantness due to dissonance has not been reported yet. In the current fMRI study, we show functional correlates of individual sensitivity to dissonance in the context of music.
Although plausible, functional neuroimaging measures that correlate with subjective perception of unpleasantness due to dissonance has not been reported yet. In the current fMRI study, we show functional correlates of individual sensitivity to dissonance in the context of music.
Methods:
Details on participants, imaging, and preprocessing were described in elsewhere (Mueller et al. 2015). Briefly explained here, 23 healthy participants (musical background?) were recruited. Twenty musical excerpts of 30 seconds (20 excerpts from dance music over the last four centuries) were used. The design of the experiment was two-by-two factorial for replay-direction and disharmonization, which was to create dissonant harmonies (i.e., the major second and the diminished fifth) constantly over the whole excerpt. While presenting 80 musical excerpts, 2800 EPI volumes that cover the ventral half of the brain were acquired at every second (TR= 1 sec). During 6 seconds between the excerpts, a participant was to rate subjective unpleasantness (1= very pleasant, 2= pleasant, 3= unpleasant, 4= very unpleasant) inside the scanner.
In this study, we only compared the condition of the original music (forward-consonant; FC) and its dissonant version (forward-dissonant; FD). Subjective rating bears not only one's sensitivity to dissonant harmony but also personal preference to music (i.e., not all the original music was rated as 'very pleasant'). Thus we subtracted ratings to FD from the rating to FC to take the preferences into account. Subject-level contrast images of FD-FC were used for intersubject-level GLM either with only interceptor or also with the subtracted unpleasant ratings. Family-wise error rate was controlled to be less than 0.05 by cluster extent thresholding with a cluster-forming threshold of 0.001 using SPM8.
In this study, we only compared the condition of the original music (forward-consonant; FC) and its dissonant version (forward-dissonant; FD). Subjective rating bears not only one's sensitivity to dissonant harmony but also personal preference to music (i.e., not all the original music was rated as 'very pleasant'). Thus we subtracted ratings to FD from the rating to FC to take the preferences into account. Subject-level contrast images of FD-FC were used for intersubject-level GLM either with only interceptor or also with the subtracted unpleasant ratings. Family-wise error rate was controlled to be less than 0.05 by cluster extent thresholding with a cluster-forming threshold of 0.001 using SPM8.
Results:
Subjective ratings are summarized in Figure 1. The subjective ratings to the FD were not linearly correlated with the ratings to the FC (p=0.11), presumably due to individually different sensitivity to dissonant harmony.
One-sample t-test of the FD-FC contrast images showed significant reduction in BOLD activation due to dissonant harmony in the brainstem, the right thalamus, bilateral superior temporal planes, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (Figure 2, A) in accordance with previous neuroimage studies (Blood et al. 1999; Koelsch et al. 2006). Also, a negative correlation between the FD-FC contrast in BOLD activation and in subjective rating was found in the brainstem (Figure 2, B) with a peak in the right IC (p = 0.025) (Figure 2, C). In other words, the more one rated dissonant music unpleasantly, the more one's IC showed reduction in BOLD activation due to dissonance.
One-sample t-test of the FD-FC contrast images showed significant reduction in BOLD activation due to dissonant harmony in the brainstem, the right thalamus, bilateral superior temporal planes, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (Figure 2, A) in accordance with previous neuroimage studies (Blood et al. 1999; Koelsch et al. 2006). Also, a negative correlation between the FD-FC contrast in BOLD activation and in subjective rating was found in the brainstem (Figure 2, B) with a peak in the right IC (p = 0.025) (Figure 2, C). In other words, the more one rated dissonant music unpleasantly, the more one's IC showed reduction in BOLD activation due to dissonance.
Conclusions:
We found a robust inter-subject correlation between the BOLD activity reduction in the right IC and individual dislike of dissonance in the context of music. It adds functional evidence to an idea that personal preference in music can be influenced by the characteristics of low-level auditory system in listeners.
Emotion and Motivation:
Emotional Perception
Higher Cognitive Functions:
Music 1
Imaging Methods:
BOLD fMRI
Perception and Attention:
Perception: Auditory/ Vestibular 2
Keywords:
Brainstem
Emotions
FUNCTIONAL MRI
Hearing
Other - music; harmony;
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Blood AJ, Zatorre RJ, Bermudez P, Evans AC. 1999. Emotional responses to pleasant and unpleasant music correlate with activity in paralimbic brain regions. Nat Neurosci 2:382-387.
Bones O, Hopkins K, Krishnan A, Plack CJ. 2014. Phase locked neural activity in the human brainstem predicts preference for musical consonance. Neuropsychologia 58:23-32.
Fritz T, Jentschke S, Gosselin N, Sammler D, Peretz I, Turner R, Friederici AD, Koelsch S. 2009. Universal recognition of three basic emotions in music. Curr Biol 19:573-576.
Fritz TH, Renders W, Muller K, Schmude P, Leman M, Turner R, Villringer A. 2013. Anatomical differences in the human inferior colliculus relate to the perceived valence of musical consonance and dissonance. Eur J Neurosci 38:3099-3105.
Koelsch S, Fritz T, Von Cramon DY, Muller K, Friederici AD. 2006. Investigating emotion with music: An fMRI study. Hum Brain Mapp 27:239-250.
Mueller K, Fritz T, Mildner T, Richter M, Schulze K, Lepsien J, Schroeter ML, Moller HE. 2015. Investigating the dynamics of the brain response to music: A central role of the ventral striatum/nucleus accumbens. Neuroimage 116:68-79.