title: Mapping aesthetic musical emotions in the brain.
abstract: Music evokes complex emotions beyond pleasant/unpleasant or happy/sad dichotomies usually investigated in neuroscience. Here, we used functional neuroimaging with parametric analyses based on the intensity of felt emotions to explore a wider spectrum of affective responses reported during music listening. Positive emotions correlated with activation of left striatum and insula when high-arousing (Wonder, Joy) but right striatum and orbitofrontal cortex when low-arousing (Nostalgia, Tenderness). Irrespective of their positive/negative valence, high-arousal emotions (Tension, Power, and Joy) also correlated with activations in sensory and motor areas, whereas low-arousal categories (Peacefulness, Nostalgia, and Sadness) selectively engaged ventromedial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. The right parahippocampal cortex activated in all but positive high-arousal conditions. Results also suggested some blends between activation patterns associated with different classes of emotions, particularly for feelings of Wonder or Transcendence. These data reveal a differentiated recruitment across emotions of networks involved in reward, memory, self-reflective, and sensorimotor processes, which may account for the unique richness of musical emotions.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Behavioral Neurology and Imaging of Cognition, Department of Neuroscience, Medical School, University of Geneva, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland. johanna.trost@unige.ch
authors.forename: Wiebke
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Trost
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ethofer
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zentner
authors.forename: Patrik
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vuilleumier
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009146:Music / Q000523:psychology*