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Music and Its Inductive Power: A Psychobiological and Evolutionary Approach to Musical Emotions

Reybrouck, M.; Eerola, T.

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Authors

M. Reybrouck



Abstract

The aim of this contribution is to broaden the concept of musical meaning from an abstract and emotionally neutral cognitive representation to an emotion-integrating description that is related to the evolutionary approach to music. Starting from the dispositional machinery for dealing with music as a temporal and sounding phenomenon, musical emotions are considered as adaptive responses to be aroused in human beings as the product of neural structures that are specialized for their processing. A theoretical and empirical background is provided in order to bring together the findings of music and emotion studies and the evolutionary approach to musical meaning. The theoretical grounding elaborates on the transition from referential to affective semantics, the distinction between expression and induction of emotions, and the tension between discrete-digital and analog-continuous processing of the sounds. The empirical background provides evidence from several findings such as infant-directed speech, referential emotive vocalizations and separation calls in lower mammals, the distinction between the acoustic and vehicle mode of sound perception, and the bodily and physiological reactions to the sounds. It is argued, finally, that early affective processing reflects the way emotions make our bodies feel, which in turn reflects on the emotions expressed and decoded. As such there is a dynamic tension between nature and nurture, which is reflected in the nature-nurture-nature cycle of musical sense-making.

Citation

Reybrouck, M., & Eerola, T. (2017). Music and Its Inductive Power: A Psychobiological and Evolutionary Approach to Musical Emotions. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, Article 494. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00494

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Feb 16, 2017
Online Publication Date Apr 4, 2017
Publication Date Apr 1, 2017
Deposit Date Apr 10, 2017
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Frontiers in Psychology
Print ISSN 1664-1078
Publisher Frontiers Media
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 8
Article Number 494
DOI https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00494

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2017 Reybrouck and Eerola. 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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