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It’s sad but I like it: The neural dissociation between musical emotions and liking in experts and laypersons

Brattico, E.; Bogert, B.; Alluri, V.; Tervaniemi, M.; Eerola, T.; Jacobsen, T.

It’s sad but I like it: The neural dissociation between musical emotions and liking in experts and laypersons Thumbnail


Authors

E. Brattico

B. Bogert

V. Alluri

M. Tervaniemi

T. Jacobsen



Abstract

Emotion-related areas of the brain, such as the medial frontal cortices, amygdala and striatum are activated during listening to sad or happy music as well as during listening to pleasurable music. Indeed, in music, like in other arts, sad and happy emotions might co-exist and be distinct from emotions of pleasure or enjoyment. Here we aimed at discerning the neural correlates of sadness or happiness in music as opposed those related to musical enjoyment. We further investigated whether musical expertise modulates the neural activity during affective listening of music. To these aims, 13 musicians and 16 non-musicians brought to the lab their most liked and disliked musical pieces with a happy and sad connotation. Based on a listening test, we selected the most representative 18-sec excerpts of the emotions of interest for each individual participant. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) recordings were obtained while subjects listened to and rated the excerpts. The cortico-thalamo-striatal reward circuit and motor areas were more active during liked than disliked music, whereas only the auditory cortex and the right amygdala were more active for disliked over liked music. These results discern the brain structures responsible for the perception of sad and happy emotions in music from those related to musical enjoyment. We also obtained novel evidence for functional differences in the limbic system associated with musical expertise, by showing enhanced liking-related activity in fronto-insular and cingulate areas in musicians.

Citation

Brattico, E., Bogert, B., Alluri, V., Tervaniemi, M., Eerola, T., & Jacobsen, T. (2016). It’s sad but I like it: The neural dissociation between musical emotions and liking in experts and laypersons. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 9, Article 676. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00676

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 30, 2015
Online Publication Date Jan 6, 2016
Publication Date Jan 6, 2016
Deposit Date Nov 30, 2015
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
Publisher Frontiers Media
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 9
Article Number 676
DOI https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00676
Keywords Music, Emotion Perception, Aesthetics, Liking, fMRI, Salience network, Limbic System.

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Copyright Statement
© 2015 Brattico, Bogert, Alluri, Tervaniemi, Eerola and Jacobsen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.





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