The Effects of Musical Mood and Musical Arousal on Visual Attention

The presence of music is a visceral part of the human experience and its influence on cognitive function is a growing area of research in psychology. In particular, perceptual properties of music (mood and arousal) have been shown to significantly affect performance. There has been minimal research in the field on the interaction of mood and arousal and their influence on attention, thus the purpose of this study. Fifty undergraduate students currently enrolled at the University of Western Ontario were recruited for this study. Given that music is a highly subjective experience, participants rated an assortment of music clips on their mood and arousal levels. The clips that participants rated highest and lowest on mood (positive and negative) and arousal (low and high) were chosen for use on the Posner cueing task. This visual attention task was either performed in silence or while listening to music clips as per their ratings. Results indicated that musical mood and musical arousal, independently of one another, had no significant effect on visual attention. Rather, a significant interaction between the two perceptual properties was observed. The fastest reaction times were recorded when participants listened to high arousal positive music and the longest reaction times were found when participants listened to high arousal negative music. Intermediate performance occurred when participants listened to low arousal negative music and low arousal positive music. Future studies should investigate whether the combined modulatory effects of musical mood and musical arousal generalize to other attentional paradigms

The beneficial effects of additional task load, positive affect, and instruction on the attentional blink.

The attentional blink reflects the impaired ability to identify the 2nd of 2 targets presented in close succession - a phenomenon that is generally thought to reflect a fundamental cognitive limitation. However, the fundamental nature of this impairment has recently been called into question by the counterintuitive finding that task-irrelevant mental activity improves attentional blink performance (C. N. L. Olivers & S. Nieuwenhuis, 2005). The present study found a reduced attentional blink when participants concurrently performed an additional memory task, viewed pictures of positive affective content, or were instructed to focus less on the task. These findings support the hypothesis that the attentional blink is due to an overinvestment of attentional resources in stimulus processing, a suboptimal processing mode that can be counteracted by manipulations promoting divided attention. Copyright 2006 by the American Psychological Association

A multicomponential examination of tennis players’ emotional responses to music

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The principal aim of this research programme was to examine multiple components of competitive tennis players’ emotional responses to pre-performance music. To this end, four objectives were defined: First, to develop a grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) of players’ use of music to manipulate emotional state; second, to examine the impact of altering music tempo and intensity on players’ affective and behavioural responses; third, to identify neural origins for these phenomena; and fourth, to elucidate the role of motoneuron excitability in behavioural responses observed. These objectives were realised in four interrelated studies. First, 14 players provided quantitative and qualitative interview, questionnaire, and diary data to detail their use of personally emotive music; a grounded theory and associated model were consequently developed to facilitate future research and practice. Participants used music to attain five broad emotional states, including psyched-up; this was associated with faster tempi and louder intensities (volumes). Study 2 was conceived to examine the effects of manipulating these variables on 54 players’ affective and behavioural states, using measures based on Russell’s (1980) affective circumplex and reaction times (RTs). Faster tempi elicited higher valence and arousal, loud intensity yielded higher arousal and shorter RTs; and higher arousal was associated with shorter RTs. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was utilised in Study 3 to identify neural bases for 12 participants’ emotional responses to the same music manipulations; emotion-processing, visuomotor and sensorimotor structures were activated under high-arousal conditions. Transcranial magnetic stimulation and electromyography were used in Study 4 to investigate changes in 10 participants’ corticospinal excitability as a result of listening to purposively selected music; optimised music elicited higher arousal and reduced corticospinal response latencies. The foremost contribution of this thesis is to show that music variables may be carefully selected and/or manipulated to maximise performance-facilitating emotional responses to music in tennis

Effet de la musique de fond sur le contrôle attentionnel chez les personnes âgées et les jeunes adultes

Le vieillissement normal peut être accompagné par un déclin cognitif incluant une diminution du contrôle attentionnel, une fonction exécutive nous permettant de concentrer notre attention tout en inhibant les distractions. De plus, des études antérieures ont démontré que la musique de fond peut améliorer certaines fonctions exécutives, autant chez les jeunes que chez les personnes âgées. Sachant que le vieillissement normal est caractérisé par un déclin du contrôle attentionnel qui n’est pas observé chez leurs cadets, cette étude vise à explorer si l’effet de la musique de fond sur le contrôle attentionnel est le même chez les personnes âgées et les jeunes adultes. Pour ce faire, 19 personnes âgées (62 à 74 ans) ainsi que 21 jeunes adultes (20 à 32 ans) ont effectué la tâche flanker d’Eriksen, qui évalue le contrôle attentionnel, dans trois conditions : en écoutant de la musique de fond stimulante, relaxante et en silence. Comme attendu, les temps de réaction étaient plus lents pour les essais non congruents que pour les essais congruents. Cette différence, appelée l’effet flanker, était significativement plus grande sous la condition de musique relaxante comparativement aux deux autres conditions. De plus, l’effet flanker était le même dans les deux groupes d’âge. Pour conclure, la musique relaxante nuit au contrôle attentionnel des personnes âgées et des jeunes adultes, comparativement à la musique stimulante et au silence.Normal aging can be accompanied by a cognitive decline including a decrease in attentional control, an executive function allowing us to focus attention while inhibiting distractors. Also, previous studies demonstrated that background music can enhance some executive functions, both in young and older adults. Knowing that normal aging is characterised by a decline in attentional control that is not observed in their younger peers, this study aims to explore if the effect of background music on attentional control is the same in older and young adults. To do so, 19 older adults (62-74) as well as 21 young adults (20-32) performed the Eriksen’s flanker task, evaluating attentional control, under the exposition of three conditions: stimulating and relaxing music and silence. As expected, reaction time (RT) was slower for the incongruent trials and faster for the congruent ones. However, this difference, called the flanker effect, was significantly greater under the relaxing music condition compared to others, due to a combination of much slower RT in incongruent trials and faster RT in congruent ones. The flanker effect was the same in both age groups. In conclusion, relaxing music impairs attentional control of older and young adults compared to stimulating music and silence

A multicomponential examination of tennis players’ emotional responses to music

The principal aim of this research programme was to examine multiple components of competitive tennis players’ emotional responses to pre-performance music. To this end, four objectives were defined: First, to develop a grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) of players’ use of music to manipulate emotional state; second, to examine the impact of altering music tempo and intensity on players’ affective and behavioural responses; third, to identify neural origins for these phenomena; and fourth, to elucidate the role of motoneuron excitability in behavioural responses observed. These objectives were realised in four interrelated studies. First, 14 players provided quantitative and qualitative interview, questionnaire, and diary data to detail their use of personally emotive music; a grounded theory and associated model were consequently developed to facilitate future research and practice. Participants used music to attain five broad emotional states, including psyched-up; this was associated with faster tempi and louder intensities (volumes). Study 2 was conceived to examine the effects of manipulating these variables on 54 players’ affective and behavioural states, using measures based on Russell’s (1980) affective circumplex and reaction times (RTs). Faster tempi elicited higher valence and arousal, loud intensity yielded higher arousal and shorter RTs; and higher arousal was associated with shorter RTs. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was utilised in Study 3 to identify neural bases for 12 participants’ emotional responses to the same music manipulations; emotion-processing, visuomotor and sensorimotor structures were activated under high-arousal conditions. Transcranial magnetic stimulation and electromyography were used in Study 4 to investigate changes in 10 participants’ corticospinal excitability as a result of listening to purposively selected music; optimised music elicited higher arousal and reduced corticospinal response latencies. The foremost contribution of this thesis is to show that music variables may be carefully selected and/or manipulated to maximise performance-facilitating emotional responses to music in tennis.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Interactions between mood and the structure of semantic memory: event-related potentials evidence

Recent evidence suggests that affect acts as modulator of cognitive processes and in particular that induced mood has an effect on the way semantic memory is used on-line. We used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine affective modulation of semantic information processing under three different moods: neutral, positive and negative. Fifteen subjects read 324 pairs of sentences, after mood induction procedure with 30 pictures of neutral, 30 pictures of positive and 30 pictures of neutral valence: 108 sentences were read in each mood induction condition. Sentences ended with three word types: expected words, within-category violations, and between-category violations. N400 amplitude was measured to the three word types under each mood induction condition. Under neutral mood, a congruency (more negative N400 amplitude for unexpected relative to expected endings) and a category effect (more negative N400 amplitude for between- than to within-category violations) were observed. Also, results showed differences in N400 amplitude for both within- and between-category violations as a function of mood: while positive mood tended to facilitate the integration of unexpected but related items, negative mood made their integration as difficult as unexpected and unrelated items. These findings suggest the differential impact of mood on access to long-term semantic memory during sentence comprehension.The authors would like to thank to all the participants of the study, as well as to Jenna Mezin and Elizabeth Thompson for their help with data collection. This work was supported by a Doctoral Grant from Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia - Portugal (SFRH/BD/35882/2007 to A. P. P.) and by the National Institute of Mental Health (RO1 MH 040799 to R. W. M.; RO3 MH 078036 to M.A.N.)

Aroused with heart: Modulation of heartbeat evoked potential by arousal induction and its oscillatory correlates

Recent studies showed that the visceral information is constantly processed by the brain, thereby potentially influencing cognition. One index of such process is the heartbeat evoked potential (HEP), an ERP component related to the cortical processing of the heartbeat. The HEP is sensitive to a number of factors such as motivation, attention, pain, which are associated with higher levels of arousal. However, the role of arousal and its associated brain oscillations on the HEP has not been characterized, yet it could underlie the previous findings. Here we analysed the effects of high- (HA) and low-arousal (LA) induction on the HEP. Further, we investigated the brain oscillations and their role in the HEP in response to HA and LA inductions. As compared to LA, HA was associated with a higher HEP and lower alpha oscillations. Interestingly, individual differences in the HEP modulation by arousal induction were correlated with alpha oscillations. In particular, participants with higher alpha power during the arousal inductions showed a larger HEP in response to HA compared to LA. In summary, we demonstrated that arousal induction affects the cortical processing of heartbeats; and that the alpha oscillations may modulate this effect