[ad_1]
Music can stir emotions on the listener’s face, but scientists have found that they can “understand” the kind of melody played by analyzing an individual’s brain.
Using machine learning and functional magnetic resonance imaging, researchers at the University of Turku found that the auditory and motor cortices are activated when happy or sad music is played.
The auditory cortex processes vocal elements, such as rhythm and melody, and the motor cortex can be related to the fact that music inspires sensations of movement.
The study also looked at music that evokes fear and revealed its association with subcortical structures associated with memory, emotion, and pleasure.
Music can induce a powerful subjective experience of emotions, but there is a debate as to whether these responses share the same neural circuits, such as emotions evoked by biologically important events, the researchers also participated in the study published in Oxford Academic.
They said: “We examined the functional neurological basis of emotions caused by music in a large sample of people who listened to emotionally engaging pieces of music, while their hemodynamic brain activity was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).”
A total of 102 people participated in this study, where they were asked to listen to instrumental music while scientists scanned their brains.
Then, a machine learning algorithm was used to map which areas of the brain are activated when different emotions triggered by music occur.
After these processes, the researchers were able to predict whether the participants listened to happy or sad music. The reason for activating the auditory cortex is that this part of the brain plays an important role in our ability to perceive sound, and this region will help us process the acoustic elements of music such as rhythm and melody.
Although the people were asked to lie down during the functional MRI, the motor cortex was still active. This is because the motor cortex is involved in planning, controlling, and executing voluntary movements.
According to scientists, when people listened to music, they had a sense of movement.
By observing the fear response, several brain regions were activated: the two-sided subcortical activity in the brain stem, thalamus, putamen.
The researchers also discovered which areas of the brain were activated when the research participants watched video clips that stimulated strong emotions, and tested whether the same areas were activated when the participants listened to the music that stimulated emotions.
The results indicate that the emotions evoked by movies and music depend in part on the work of various mechanisms in the brain.
Movies, for example, activate the deepest parts of the brain that regulate emotions in real-life situations. This may be due to the fact that movies can more realistically copy real life events that evoke emotions and thus activate innate emotional mechanisms.
As for the emotions caused by music, it is based on the acoustic properties of the music and is colored by cultural influences and personal history.
[ad_2]
