A Framework of Distinct Musical Chills: Theoretical, Causal, and Conceptual Evidence

The phenomenon of musical chills has attracted extensive attention in previous music and emotion research, correlating the experience with musical structure, psychoacoustics parameters, individual differences in listeners, and the listening situation. However, there are three crucial limitations in the literature: 1) The emotional characteristics of musical chills have not been explored, and are poorly understood; 2) musical chills have never been causally manipulated, and no theories have been tested; and 3) it is unclear whether chills are a unified psychological construct, or a set of distinct experiences, distinguished at the levels of subjective feeling, psychophysiological response, individual differences, and underlying psychological induction mechanisms. Across five studies, ranging from qualitative surveys to experimental manipulations of musical chills, these limitations were addressed in the current thesis, with results suggesting firstly that musical chills are often mixed emotional experiences, described as moving, bittersweet and intense; secondly, that musical chills can be manipulated, and corresponding theories tested, with a novel experimental paradigm, by removing key sections in a piece or changing psychoacoustic parameters such as loudness and brightness; finally, that there are likely distinct types of chills experiences, which across multimedia are linked to both the affective dimension of valence and individual differences such as trait empathy, and with music through mechanisms of fear and vigilance on the one hand, and social bonding on the other. The studies and results are discussed in terms of two categories of musical chills experiences, culminating in a preliminary Distinct Musical Chills Framework, producing a series of testable hypotheses for future empirical work, and a comprehensive research agenda for the field moving forward

Computational and Psycho-Physiological Investigations of Musical Emotions

The ability of music to stir human emotions is a well known fact (Gabrielsson & Lindstrom. 2001). However, the manner in which music contributes to those experiences remains obscured. One of the main reasons is the large number of syndromes that characterise emotional experiences. Another is their subjective nature: musical emotions can be affected by memories, individual preferences and attitudes, among other factors (Scherer & Zentner, 2001). But can the same music induce similar affective experiences in all listeners, somehow independently of acculturation or personal bias? A considerable corpus of literature has consistently reported that listeners agree rather strongly about what type of emotion is expressed in a particular piece or even in particular moments or sections (Juslin & Sloboda, 2001). Those studies suggest that music features encode important characteristics of affective experiences, by suggesting the influence of various structural factors of music on emotional expression. Unfortunately, the nature of these relationships is complex, and it is common to find rather vague and contradictory descriptions. This thesis presents a novel methodology to analyse the dynamics of emotional responses to music. It consists of a computational investigation, based on spatiotemporal neural networks sensitive to structural aspects of music, which "mimic" human affective responses to music and permit to predict new ones. The dynamics of emotional responses to music are investigated as computational representations of perceptual processes (psychoacoustic features) and self-perception of physiological activation (peripheral feedback). Modelling and experimental results provide evidence suggesting that spatiotemporal patterns of sound resonate with affective features underlying judgements of subjective feelings. A significant part of the listener's affective response is predicted from the a set of six psychoacoustic features of sound - tempo, loudness, multiplicity (texture), power spectrum centroid (mean pitch), sharpness (timbre) and mean STFT flux (pitch variation) - and one physiological variable - heart rate. This work contributes to new evidence and insights to the study of musical emotions, with particular relevance to the music perception and emotion research communities

The emotional power of poetry: Neural circuitry, psychophysiology, compositional principles

It is a common experience-and well established experimentally-that music can engage us emotionally in a compelling manner. The mechanisms underlying these experiences are receiving increasing scrutiny. However, the extent to which other domains of aesthetic experience can similarly elicit strong emotions is unknown. Using psychophysiology, neuroimaging, and behavioral responses, we show that recited poetry can act as a powerful stimulus for eliciting peak emotional responses, including chills and objectively measurable goosebumps that engage the primary reward circuitry. Importantly, while these responses to poetry are largely analogous to those found our music, their neural underpinnings show important differences, specifically with regard to the crucial role of the nucleus accumbens. We also go beyond replicating previous music-related studies by showing that peak aesthetic pleasure can co-occur with physiological markers of negative affect. Finally, the distribution of chills across the trajectory of poems provides insight into compositional principles of poetry

Co-occurrence of Emotional Lacrimation and Emotional Piloerection Indicates a Psychophysiological Climax in Emotional Arousal

This psychophysiological study is the first to examine the relationship between emotional tears and emotional piloerection (i.e., goosebumps). Although both phenomena have been related to peak states of being moved, details about their temporal occurrence and the associated levels of physiological arousal have remained unknown. In our study, we used emotionally powerful film scenes that were self-selected by participants. Our findings show that even within peak moments of emotional arousal, a gradation of intensity is possible. The overlap of tears and goosebumps signifies a maximal climax within peak moments. On the side of the stimulus, we found that displays of prosocial behavior play a crucial role in the elicitation of tears and goosebumps. Finally, based on the results of a formal film analysis of the tears-eliciting clips provided by our participants, as compared to randomly extracted, equally long control clips from the same films, we show how the technical and artistic making of the clips was optimized for the display of social interaction and emotional expressions

Tourism experiences in motion. Mobile, visual and psychophysiological methods to capture tourists “on the move”

Experience measurement and design have become leading management objectives to ensure destination competitiveness in recent years. This paper applies the user-centred perspective of mobile video ethnography with bio-sensing and facial action coding to study journey experiences – i.e. those tourist experiences happening in motion. The use of mobile, visual and psychophysiological methods represents a novel opportunity to deeper explore physical, sensory, social and emotional shades of tourist experiences. Experience measurement and design in the field of tourist transport has the potential to shape more sustainable and experientially rich forms of mobility. Results show and compare unique features of cycling and motorcycling journeys, highlighting the interface between riding and non-riding tasks, as well as the importance of speed variation and time duration in assessing the relationship with land- and soundscapes

Not Cure But Heal: Music and Medicine

Despite evidence for music-specific mechanisms at the level of pitch-pattern representations, the most fascinating aspect of music is its transmodality. Recent psychological and neuroscientific evidence suggests that music is unique in the coupling of perception, cognition, action, and emotion. This potentially explains why music has been since time immemorial almost inextricably linked to healing processes and should continue to be

The interaction of musical sound waves and meridian energy : a pilot study in the development of an integrated systems model for the treatment of psychogenic stress disorders.

The treatment effects of musical pitch and key are noticeably absent in music therapy research. The nature and patterns of the interaction between meridian energy and musical sound waves has received little or no attention in the music therapy literature and contemporary acupuncture literature. Forty-three acupuncture patients were treated with musical sound waves (329.6 Hz) on Earth points of major yin meridians when those points were clinically indicated as determined by Worsley-trained acupuncture practitioners. The musical sound wave was generated with a tuning fork, and each patient was tested and re-tested for matched-pair analysis of data. Three response categories--better, no change and worse--were compared with attention given to quantitative and qualitative differences as a function of age, CF, point, point function, meridian and the season in which treatments were received. Significant (p =.05) results indicate that treatment responses to the sound waves were not individually-specific. Significant results also indicated that therapeutic responses were more reliably accomplished on tonification points (IV\sb3, IX\sb9) and on XII\sb3 than they were on those points that are sedation points (\rm I\sb7,\ V\sb7,\ VIII\sb3). Trends in the results suggest that effectiveness of this pitch may be meridian-specific and point-specific. Trends in the data suggest that therapeutic responsivity was CF-specific with people having Water CFs showing more therapeutic response to treatment than people with other CFs. Trends suggest therapeutic response was possibly seasonally-specific with Late Summer therapeutic responses somewhat greater than those from treatments received in other seasons. Trends in the data also suggest that instrumental preferences may be used to diagnose principal energetic imbalance. Conclusions from the data are generalizable to include music of E major and E minor, but restricted to meridian energy interactions with 329.6 Hz. Findings relative to the musical sound equivalents of the Five Functional Voices in the Systems of Correspondence, the theoretical foundations of ancient Taoist medical theory, are promising. Trends in the data support the hypothesis that overtone frequency (E) 329.6 Hz is the contemporary equivalent to Kong if the fundamental is C\sb2

The psychological, psychophysical and ergogenic effects of music in sport: A review and synthesis

This is the post-print of this chapter - Copyright @ 2008 RoutledgeWe have presented two complementary conceptual approaches underlying the study and application of music in sport and exercise contexts [103, 104]. We have also established that music can be applied to sports training and competition in many different ways, and have provided 573 initial evidence for a quartic relationship between exercise heart rate and music tempo preference. One of the main demonstrated benefits of music is that it enhances psychological state, which has implications for optimising pre-competition mental state and increasing the enjoyment of training activities. Used synchronously, music can boost work output and makes repetitive tasks such as cycling or running more energy efficient. When we embarked upon our programme of research almost two decades ago, our intention was to promote more judicious use of music. The evidence that we have accumulated coupled with the findings of many other researchers from around the world, should allow athletes and practitioners to tap the psychological, psychophysical and ergogenic effects of music with greater precision