Event-related skin conductance responses to musical emotions in humans.

Full Abstract

While the reasons underlying musical emotions are unclear, music is nevertheless a powerful elicitor of emotion, and as such, may induce autonomic nervous system responses. One typical measure of this neural pathway is the skin conductance response (SCR). This response generally depends upon stimulus arousal, one of the two motivational determinants of emotion. The objective of the present study was to verify whether emotional reactions to music elicit such event-related autonomic responses. To this aim, four musical emotions varying in arousal were employed: fear, happiness, sadness and peacefulness. SCRs were found to be greater with the two more stimulating emotions, fear and happiness, as compared to the two more relaxing emotions, sadness and peacefulness (P<0.05). In addition, subjects' ratings of the emotional clarity for each excerpt did not parallel the corresponding SCRs magnitudes. The results show that SCRs can be evoked and modulated by musical emotional arousal, but are not sensitive to emotional clarity. While several studies have been performed with visual scenes and environmental sounds, the present study brings similar evidence from the musical domain.

Author information

Author/s: Khalfa, Stéphanie (S); Isabelle, Peretz (P); Jean-Pierre, Blondin (B); Manon, Robert (R);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, CP 6128 Succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal, Québec H3C 3J7, Canada. skhalfa(-atsign-)skhalfa.com

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Neuroscience letters (Neurosci Lett), published in Ireland. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Aug; vol 328 (issue 2) : pp 145-9

Dates: Created 2002/07/22; Completed 2002/09/27; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 12133576, status: MEDLINE (last retrieved date: 2/18/2009)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article
(including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.