Performing music can induce greater modulation of emotion-related psychophysiological responses than listening to music

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Abstract

The present study investigated the differential effects of music-induced emotion on heart rate (HR) and its variability (HRV) while playing music on the piano and listening to a recording of the same piece of music. Sixteen pianists were monitored during tasks involving emotional piano performance, non-emotional piano performance, emotional perception, and non-emotional perception. It was found that emotional induction during both perception and performance modulated HR and HRV, and that such modulations were significantly greater during musical performance than during perception. The results confirmed that musical performance was far more effective in modulating emotion-related autonomic nerve activity than musical perception in musicians. The findings suggest the presence of a neural network of reward-emotion-associated autonomic nerve activity for musical performance that is independent of a neural network for musical perception.

Highlights

► We examinedemotion-related autonomic responses with musical performance and perception. ► During both conditions, two contrasting conditions of emotion were also examined. ► Heart rate (HR) and its variability (HRV) weremonitoredduring all tasks. ► Emotional induction during both conditionsmodulated HR and HRV. ► Autonomic modulations were much greater during performance than during perception.

Introduction

Music is universally enjoyed by both performers (instrumentalists and/or singers) and those who perceive musical performances (active or passive listeners). Changes in emotions generated by exposure to music undoubtedly involve interactions with the central neural network responsible for autonomic nerve functions, which can in turn affect peripheral cardiovascular functions. A number of investigators have reported that musical perception is associated with modulations in heart rate (HR) as well as its variability (HRV), blood pressure (BP), body temperature, perspiration, respiration and muscle tension (Allen et al., 2001, Bernardi et al., 2006, Bernardi et al., 2009, Blood and Zatorre, 2001, Iwanaga et al., 2005, Khalfa et al., 2002, Ravaja and Kallinen, 2004, Sammler et al., 2007, White, 1999). For example, Blood and Zatorre (2001) reported that individuals who listened to self-selected music that consistently elicited intensely pleasant emotional responses, experienced elevated HR and respiration rate. The HR of subjects listening to the music with the highest valence was about 30 beats per min (bpm) greater than when the same individuals listened to music that they perceived to be non-emotional. The authors also used a positron emission tomography (PET) technique to monitor the activation of the central neural network associated with these emotional responses. Activation was observed in the ventral striatum, midbrain, amygdala, orbito-frontal, and medial prefrontal cortex. They concluded that music recruited neural systems of reward and emotion similar to those known to respond specifically to biologically relevant stimuli, such as food and sex, and those that are artificially activated by drugs of abuse. Khalfa et al. (2002) monitored skin conductance responses, a measure of sympathetic nerve activity, in subjects listening to musical excerpts that could induce different kinds of emotions (fear, happiness, sadness, and peacefulness). They reported that fear and happiness produced greater sympathetic activity than sadness and peacefulness. Using a fast Fourier transform analysis of HRV, Iwanaga et al. (2005) observed that its high-frequency (HF) component, which reflects the activity of parasympathetic nerves, was decreased in subjects who listened to an excitative type of music. Conversely, when the same subjects listened to a sedative type of music, the HF component increased.

Bernardi et al. (2006) used autoregressive power spectrum analysis to examine the HRV, ventilation, BP, and mid-cerebral artery flow velocity of individuals listening passively to music of different tempi and structures (harmony, melody, and rhythm). They reported that, when compared with baseline measurements, the ventilation, BP, HR, the ratio of low-frequency (LF) and HF (LF/HF) increased at faster tempi and with simpler rhythmic structures. Conversely, mid-cerebral artery flow and an index of baroreflex decreased under these same conditions. The authors also observed that musicians had greater respiratory sensitivity to music tempo than did non-musicians. Subsequently, Bernardi et al. (2009) examined dynamic cardiovascular and respiratory responses to various classical and operatic music selections. Vocal and orchestral crescendos produced significant correlations between cardiovascular or respiratory signals and musical profile, particularly skin vasoconstriction and BP, in proportion to crescendo. In contrast, uniform emphasis induced skin vasodilation and reduction in BP. It was also noted that the cardiovascular autonomic variables were entrained by 10-s period rhythmic phrases. In addition, the authors observed that these phenomena occurred in all subjects examined, regardless of musical training, practice, or personal taste, even in an absence of emotional responses. The investigators concluded that music could be sensed and processed at a subconscious level, closely mirrored by autonomic cardiovascular responses.

In contrast to the numerous published reports of responses to musical perception, a review of the literature revealed few investigations of the emotion-associated autonomic cardiovascular responses of musicians during their own performances. Parr (1988) monitored the HR, BP, cardiac output and forearm blood flow of trained pianists while they performed four-octave, bilateral scales at various tempi. HR progressively increased from 88 bpm to 120 bpm. Other cardiac measures also increased with increasing keystroke tempo. However, due to the fact that the bilateral-scale is undoubtedly not a task that would induce strong emotions in trained pianists, it must be assumed that the observed changes largely reflected the effect of physiological load. We have recently compared expression-related physiological and biomechanical changes in trained pianists while they played the same musical piece with and without expression (Nakahara et al., 2010). Expressive and emotional performance resulted in increased HR and sweat rate, and decreased para-sympathetic nerve activity estimated from HRV.

The apparent dearth of information about the emotion-related autonomic and physiological responses to music performance is surprising. From a psycho-neurophysiological perspective, such information may be potentially more valuable than information concerning musical perception, especially to performers who have professional and economic interests in these matters. Such information is also of potential value for music therapists who prescribe activities involving the playing of musical instruments and singing as treatment modalities for their patients. Musical performance is distinctly different from musical perception because the performer can integrate voluntary sensorimotor actions that convey his or her unique artistic expression and emotions during the performance of a musical piece. This suggests that the levels of emotion attainable with musical performance are necessarily higher than those experienced during musical perception. Therefore, during the course of the present study we examined the effects of emotions on the autonomic functions associated with musical perception and performance. Specifically, using highly trained pianists as subjects, we investigated the effects of emotional input on HR and HRV when listening to a J.S. Bach prelude. These parameters were also monitored when the same subjects performed the same musical piece on the piano. During both the perception and performance conditions two contrasting conditions of emotion were examined. Under one of the conditions subjects were requested to respond expressively or emotionally to the music. Under the other condition subjects were requested to inhibit emotional feeling in a voluntary manner.

Section snippets

Subjects

Sixteen active, healthy Japanese classical pianists (12 females and 4 males), all of whom had at least 17 years of piano training, served as the subjects for this investigation. Their ages ranged from 22 to 33 years (mean ± SD = 24.8 ± 4.9 years). Eight of the subjects were professional performers, and the remaining 8 were graduate students who were majoring in piano performance at the School of Music at two universities in the Kansai (middle-west) region of Japan. These latter students were aspiring to

Subjective measures

The mean values of the valence and arousal levels of all conditions for all subjects are reported in Table 1. ANOVA revealed a significant task × emotion interaction for the mean value of arousal level, indicating a higher emotion-induced arousal level during performance than during perception. A task × emotion interaction for the mean value of valence level was, however, not significant. Significant main effects of task and emotion were also found for both arousal and valence levels. The highest

Discussion

The results of the present investigation yielded two novel findings: (1) emotion induction during perception of the selected piece of music as well as during performance of the same music modulated HR and indices of autonomic nerve activity, and (2) such modulations were much greater during performance than during perception.

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