Music and Emotion

Music elicits emotions. Tone, pitch, note variation, duration, and other factors extracts a variation of responses from us ranging from mere tapping of our feet, the nodding of our heads, to a full blown dance. Less obvious responses are also occurring that we may not be fully aware of. Cardio-respiratory rate changes occur and bio-chemicals such endorphins and dopamine may be released. Recently there has been interest shown towards investigating music and its workings on physiological and biological levels with a main interest of applying its findings to clinical situations. So far, music has been found to be an effective therapy for many neurological and psychiatric disorders including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson disease, depression, dementia, and anxiety. It has also been used in pain management.
Boso et al. (2006) discusses music stimuli and its neurobiological, neuropsychological, and neurophysiological pathways. This was done by discussing the neuroanatomy of the perceptual processing of music, the neuroanatomy of the emotional processing of music, the electrophysiological aspects of music processing, and the biochemical correlates of the musical experience.
Boso et al. presents many interesting points throughout the article. For instance, as they discuss the perceptual processing on music, they note that although music stimuli is normally processed like any other sound (via the auditory pathway), music vibrations also activate skin receptors. Another interesting fact is on how it notes that aside from the normal route of sound stimuli being collected from the outer ear and basically routed to the cochlea, to the auditory nerve, and, consequently, to the auditory thalamus and the auditory cortex, auditory projections are also routed to the amygdala and the medial orbitofrontal cortex, two areas of the brain that play a part in the processing of emotions. According to Carlson (2005), the amygdala is responsible for behavioral, automatic, and hormonal responses. The orbitofrontal cortex, located at base of the frontal lobe, receive and process various input from various regions of the brain including other regions of the frontal lobe. Its input is then dispensed to several areas including the cingulated gyrus, temporal cortex, and back to the amgdala thus affecting behavioral and physiological responses including emotional ones organized by the amygdala (Carlson, 2005). As this article continues to explain the emotional side of processing music, it cites a study conducted by Blood and Zatorre (2001) that discovered how the frontal lobes are activated when listening to pleasant music while the temporal lobes are activated during unpleasant music. Carlson (2005) notes that these two areas plays a role in speech and word recognition.
The article also discusses dopamine, endorphins, endocannabinoids, naloxone, and nitric oxide as biochemicals involved in the musical experience. “Dopamine, which is thought to play a crucial role in the response to naturally rewarding stimuli, may be involved in the enjoyment of music as well” (Boso et al., 2006).This may also be true for endorphins and endocannabiniods released into the bloodstream when listening to music. Naloxone may be responsible for the decrease of pleasant sensations brought about by listening to music. Lastly, nitric acid produces physical reactions by “inducing vasodilatation, warming of skin, and reduction of blood pressure valves” (Boso et al., 2006). The most fascinating fact regarding nitric acid is that it posses antibacterial, antiviral, and immunodulatory functions. The article then speculates if “listening to pleasant music could help to protect the organism against bacterial and viral infections, excessive immune and endothelial activation, as well as the detrimental effects of arterial hypertension” (Boso, et al., 2006).
Electroencephalography, otherwise known as EEG, has been a useful tool in measuring brain responses to music stimuli. Studies using the EEG, “left frontal asymmetry has been associated with positive affect or decreased negative in response to musical stimuli, whereas right frontal asymmestry has been associated with negative affect or decreased positive affect” (Boso et al, 2006). The article also mentions that when using the event related potential technique (ERP), unexpected words produces in a musical melody produces higher peek amplitudes than unexpected words spoken in a sentence. Event-related potentials allows for the separation of small potentials evoked by sensory stimuli from the larger voltage oscillations present in EEGs (Stefanatos & Osman, 2006). The ERP has proven useful in comparing language and music processing.
Carlson (2005) notes that there are two affective disorders that have depressive symptoms namely the bipolar disorder characterized by alternating periods of mania and depression and unipolar depression, a form of depression without the manic episodes. These conditions are particularly dangerous because individuals with this disorders often attempt to commit suicide. They can have very little energy, cry a lot, and unable to experience pleasure. Those with manic symptoms also have bouts of relentless energy and experience feelings of unjustifiable feelings of elation. Currently, these conditions are treated by medication. These medications include iproniazid, tricyclic antidepressants, and specific serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Electroconvulsice therapy (ECT) have also shown effective in the treatment of depression. An article by Tornik, Field, Hernandez-Reif, Diego, and Jones (2003) shows a promising and exciting alternative to the treatment of depression with the use of music as stimuli. In this experimental study where depressive mothers were asked to randomly listen to 20 minutes of either classical or rock music in an effort to understand the effects of music and emotion. This is a longitudinal study with 48 intrusive and withdrawn participating mothers who at the time had infants between the ages of three to six months of age. Intrusive mothers possessed behaviors such as “rough tickling, poking and tugging during interactions, using rapid, staccato movements, and showing tense and fake facial expressions (Torner et al., 2003). Withdrawn mothers demonstrated “flat affects, rare touching, rare vocalizing, disengaged behaviors, and looking away from the infant” (Torner et al., 2003). Power analysis shows that 48 participants for this study would yield an effect size of .40 with a .70 power (Although standard power level is of .80, it is the author’s opinion that the results in this study is quite compelling).
Participants were selected based on three screening measures. These measures include: (a.) Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D), (b.) Intrusive/Withdrawn Interaction Style-Coding, and lastly,(c.) The Behavior Inhibition and Behavior Inhibition and Behavior Activation System Scale (BIS/BAS). The CES-D was used to determine depressive symptoms. The last two tools assessed interaction styles with the second one used as a confirmatory tool.
Actual experimental research was conducted one month after assessments. The women were randomly chosen to listen to 20 minutes of either rock or classical music. Three things were done before and after listening sessions: (a.) EEG was recorded three minutes before and after, (b) saliva samples were taken to measure cortisol levels, ( c.) mood and anxiety questionnaires were given ( questionnaire tools used were The Profile of Mood States-Depression Subscale (POMS) and The State Anxiety Inventory (STAI)).
Results show that all groups showed a decrease in depressive moods using the POM questionnaire tool yet only those intrusive-depressed mothers that listened to rock music showed a decrease in STAI anxiety score. Also, it is only this group of mothers that had significant decreased in cortisol levels shown in their saliva analysis.
As mentioned earlier, EEG is a useful tool in measuring brain responses to musical stimuli. Greater relative right frontal EEG activation is associated with the experience of negative emotions; left front EGG activation is associated with the experience of positive emotions. Yet, the authors on this article would like its readers to consider the corresponding EEG patterns under the broader categories of approach-avoidance emotions. This theory indicates that approach emotions such as joy, interest, and anger activate the left frontal regions and avoidance emotions such as distress and disgust activates the right frontal regions. Thus, if EEG were to measure brain activity before experimentation results would show that the mothers who were intrusive (approach) would exhibit left frontal EEG activation patterns, the mothers who were withdrawn (avoidance) would exhibit right frontal EEG activation.
The EEG for this study then yielded the following results. In general, The EEG showed greater relative right-frontal EEG activation (associated with feelings of distress and disgust) when listening for classical music and left-frontal EEG activation (associated with feelings of joy and interest) for rock music suggests a preference for rock music. “Although the intrusive group EEG values did not differ significantly across music types, the EEG for the withdrawn group suggested less negative (less right-frontal EEG) values for the rock than for the classical music.” (Boso et al., 2006). In conclusion, rock music elevated the moods of withdrawn depressive mothers as the study predicted but classical music did not show any benefit to the intrusive depressive group as originally theorized.
Potential Contributions and Author’s Areas of Learning
Music is something we often take for granted. It seems that instinctively it is understood by anyone and everyone. From its tempo, beat, and lyrics we naturally understand the meaning and the message that it seeks to convey. Music has always been a part of human existence. It is common understanding that different types, tempos, rhythms and such of music elicit different emotional responses within us. What is not common knowledge are the body’s physiological responses. In recent years, music has been an area of interest to be studied in a scientific approach in search of understanding its effects in clinical management in neurological and psychiatric disorders. Both articles mentioned above are such research. They believe that the understanding thereof can make significant contributions in clinical settings.
The first article, “Neurophysiology and Neurobiology of the Musical Experience” brings forth many interesting details such as how music stimuli are not only processed via normal auditory physiological pathways but also activates skin receptors. Another interesting detail presented in this article is how perceived pleasant musical stimuli activated frontal lobes as opposed to the temporal lobes activated by unpleasant.
The second article entitled, “Music Effects on EEG in Intrusive and Withdrawn Mothers with Depressive Symptoms” found that rock music was generally beneficial to all its participants regardless of interaction type. This shows that rock music can be used as an energizing tool in depression and its symptoms. Both articles agree that preliminary studies such these needs to be confirmed and expanded on.
Both articles have deepened the author’s understanding on basic physiology and the need to understand it.
Conclusion
Music can serve humankind beyond social interaction and self expression. The two articles above shows that music works in deeper levels than one may initially think. It have come to this author’s attention how complex music is as a stimuli as it shows to activate receptors of both skin and auditory systems alike and affecting not only emotional areas of the brain but also areas responsible for language comprehension. It shows that it can be therapeutic and effective in reducing stress and depression. The ability of music stimuli to cause biochemicals such as dopamine, endocannabiniods naloxone supports this. It shows to play a promising role in the treatment of diseases both psychiatric and neurologic. Unfortunately, as both article mentions, there are limited scientific research on this.







References
Anne J Blood, & Robert J Zatorre. (2001). Intensely pleasurable responses to music correlate with activity in brain regions implicated in reward and emotion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 98(20), 11818-11823. Retrieved November 23, 2009, from Research Library. (Document ID: 86813640).
Boso, M., Politi, P., Barale, F., Emanuele, E. (2006) Neurophysiology and neurobiology
of the musical experience. Functional Neurology, 21(4), 187-91. Retrieved November
6, 2009. From Proquest Health and Medical Complete. ( Document ID: 1240556101).
Carlson, N.R., (2005). Foundations of physiological psychology ( 6thed.) Boston: Pearson
Education.
Stefanatos, G.A. and Osman, A (2006) Introduction to the application of event-related
potentials in cognitive rehabilitation research. Retrieved November 23, 2009. From
http://www.ncrrn.org/papers/methodology_papers/event_related_potentials.pdf
Tornik, A., Field, T., Hernandez-Reif, M., Diego, M., Jones, N. (2003). Music effects
on EEG in intrusive and withdrawn mothers with depressive symptoms. Psychiatry;
66, 3; Research Library.