unprecedented insight into how our bodies
increase in the complexity level of the song.
of time—for instance, looking at the brain
and brains respond to music,” said the
In essence, the more instruments are in the
reacting to two seconds of music.
study’s lead author Tim Greer, a computer
song, the more people responded. (Think:
By contrast, in this study, using
science PhD student and a member of the
the first section of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular
algorithms to analyze data gathered in the
USC Signal Analysis and Interpretation
Bells, as the song builds to a crescendo by
lab, the scientists were able to look at how
Laboratory (SAIL).
adding more instruments.)
people felt while listening to music over
Contrast is crucial
And the saddest note of all? That award
longer periods of time, not only from brain
goes to the raised 7th note of the minor
scans, but also combining data from other
Amongst their findings, the researchers
scale. The study found the note F# in a
modes.
noted that music powerfully influenced
song in the key of G minor was positively
parts of the brain in the auditory complex
correlated with high sadness ratings.
called the Heschls’ gyrus and the superior temporal gyrus.
“Novel multimodal computing approaches help not just illuminate human
That might be the reason the narrator’s
affective experiences to music at the brain
anguish is almost palpable in The Animals’
and body level, but in connecting them to
Specifically, the brain responded to
House of the Rising Sun, which uses the
how actually individuals feel and articulate
pulse clarity, or the strength of the beat (put
raised 7th of the minor scale to launch into
their experiences,” said Professor Shrikanth
simply: your gyri will be looking lively when
each increasingly emotional verse.
(Shri) Narayanan, study co-author, Niki
New territory
and professor of electrical and computer
rhythm and timbre, or the introduction of
For this experiment, the team selected
engineering and computer science.
new instruments, brings about the uptick in
three emotional pieces of music that did not
response. In other words, contrast is crucial.
contain lyrics and were not highly familiar,
For instance, the gyri activate when there is
so no element of memory was attached to
Feeling good
a change in dynamics, or “loudness.”
the listeners’ emotional response. (Hearing
In addition to helping researchers identify
listening to Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance). They also found that changing dynamics,
and C. L. Max Nikias Chair in Engineering
“This is new territory,” added Habibi.
“If a song is loud throughout, there’s
a song that played in the background during
songs for the perfect workout, study or
not a lot of dynamic variability, and the
a wisdom tooth extraction, for instance,
sleep playlist, the research has therapeutic
experience will not be as powerful as if the
might skew your perception.)
applications — music has been shown to
composer uses a change in loudness,” said
In the neuroimaging experiment, 40
Greer, himself a composer who plays sax
volunteers listened to a series of sad
and keyboard.
calm anxiety, ease pain and help people with disabilities or dementia.
or happy musical excerpts, while their
“From a therapy perspective, music is
“It’s the songwriter’s job to take you on
brains were scanned using MRI. This was
a really good tool to induce emotion and
a rollercoaster of emotions in under three
conducted at USC’s Brain and Creativity
engage a better mood,” said Habibi.
minutes, and dynamic variability is one of
Institute by Assal Habibi, an assistant
“Using this research, we can design
the ways this is achieved.”
professor of psychology at USC Dornsife,
musical stimuli for therapy in depression
So, if you’re listening to a whole album
and her team, including Matthew Sachs, a
and other mood disorders. It also helps us
of black metal, which is consistently loud,
postdoctoral scholar currently at Columbia
understand how emotions are processed in
you’re probably not going to see a response.
University.
the brain.”
But if you’re listening to Nirvana’s Smells
To measure physical reaction, 60 people
According to the researchers, future
Like Teen Spirit, which goes from a quiet
listened to music on headphones, while
studies could look at how different types
verse to loud chorus and back again, it’s a
their heart activity and skin conductance
of music can positively manipulate our
different story.
were measured. The same group also rated
emotional responses and whether the intent
the intensity of emotion (happy or sad) from
of the composer matches the listener’s
1 to 10 while listening to the music.
perception of a piece of music.
The team also discovered that galvanic skin response—basically, a measure of sweat — increased after the entrance
Then, the computer scientists crunched
The paper, titled “A Multimodal View
of a new instrument or start of a musical
the data using AI algorithms to determine
into Music’s Effect on Human Neural,
crescendo.
which auditory features people responded
Physiological, and Emotional Experience,”
to consistently.
was presented at ACM Multimedia, Oct. 22.
“When each new instrument enters, you
In the past, neuroscientists trying to
The research team also includes Ben Ma,
better understand the impact of music on
a USC Viterbi undergraduate in computer
In addition, the most stimulating
the body, brain and emotions have analyzed
science and a member of USC SAIL. n
moments in music were preceded by an
MRI brain scans over very short segments
can see a spike in the collective response of the skin,” said Greer.
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