title: Differences between musicians and non-musicians in neuro-affective processing of sadness and fear expressed in music.
abstract: Music is known to convey and evoke emotional states. Musical training has been argued to lead to changes in neural architecture and enhanced processing of emotions. It is not clear, however, whether musical training is also associated with changes in behavioral and neural responses to musically conveyed discrete emotions. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated the responses to three musically conveyed emotions (happiness, sadness, fear) in a group of musicians and a group of non-musicians. We find that musicians rate sadness and fear as significantly more arousing than non-musicians, and that musical training is associated with specific neural activations: In response to sadness expressed in music, musicians show activation increases in the right prefrontal cortex, specifically in the superior and middle frontal gyri. In response to fear, musicians show activation increases in the right parietal cortex, specifically in the supramarginal and inferior parietal gyri. No specific activations were observed in response to happiness. Our results highlight the strong association between musical training and altered processing of "negative" emotions on both the behavioral and on the neural level.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University, Goethestr. 31, 80336 Munich, Germany; Human Science Center, Ludwig Maximilian University, Goethestr. 31, 80336 Munich, Germany; Parmenides Center for Art and Science, Kirchplatz 1, 82049 Pullach, Germany.
authors.forename: Mona
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University, Goethestr. 31, 80336 Munich, Germany; Human Science Center, Ludwig Maximilian University, Goethestr. 31, 80336 Munich, Germany; Parmenides Center for Art and Science, Kirchplatz 1, 82049 Pullach, Germany. Electronic address: evgeny.gutyrchik@med.uni-muenchen.de.
authors.forename: Evgeny
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gutyrchik
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Peking University, 100871 Beijing, China; Key Laboratory of Machine Perception (MoE), Peking University, 100871 Beijing, China; Human Science Center, Ludwig Maximilian University, Goethestr. 31, 80336 Munich, Germany; Parmenides Center for Art and Science, Kirchplatz 1, 82049 Pullach, Germany.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bao
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University, Goethestr. 31, 80336 Munich, Germany; Human Science Center, Ludwig Maximilian University, Goethestr. 31, 80336 Munich, Germany; Parmenides Center for Art and Science, Kirchplatz 1, 82049 Pullach, Germany.
authors.forename: Yuliya
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zaytseva
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University, Goethestr. 31, 80336 Munich, Germany; Human Science Center, Ludwig Maximilian University, Goethestr. 31, 80336 Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Carl
authors.affiliation: Human Science Center, Ludwig Maximilian University, Goethestr. 31, 80336 Munich, Germany; Institute of Musicology, Ludwig Maximilian University, Goethestr. 31, 80336 Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Lorenz
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Welker
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University, Goethestr. 31, 80336 Munich, Germany; Human Science Center, Ludwig Maximilian University, Goethestr. 31, 80336 Munich, Germany; Parmenides Center for Art and Science, Kirchplatz 1, 82049 Pullach, Germany; Department of Psychology, Peking University, 100871 Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Ernst
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pöppel
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Radiology, Ludwig Maximilian University, Goethestr. 31, 80336 Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Maximilian
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reiser
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Radiology, Ludwig Maximilian University, Goethestr. 31, 80336 Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Janusch
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Blautzik
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Radiology, Ludwig Maximilian University, Goethestr. 31, 80336 Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Meindl
mesh_terms: D001143:Arousal; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004644:Emotions; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009146:Music; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Basic emotions; Fear; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Music perception; Musical training; Sadness