title: Fear across the senses: brain responses to music, vocalizations and facial expressions.
abstract: Intrinsic emotional expressions such as those communicated by faces and vocalizations have been shown to engage specific brain regions, such as the amygdala. Although music constitutes another powerful means to express emotions, the neural substrates involved in its processing remain poorly understood. In particular, it is unknown whether brain regions typically associated with processing 'biologically relevant' emotional expressions are also recruited by emotional music. To address this question, we conducted an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study in 47 healthy volunteers in which we directly compared responses to basic emotions (fear, sadness and happiness, as well as neutral) expressed through faces, non-linguistic vocalizations and short novel musical excerpts. Our results confirmed the importance of fear in emotional communication, as revealed by significant blood oxygen level-dependent signal increased in a cluster within the posterior amygdala and anterior hippocampus, as well as in the posterior insula across all three domains. Moreover, subject-specific amygdala responses to fearful music and vocalizations were correlated, consistent with the proposal that the brain circuitry involved in the processing of musical emotions might be shared with the one that have evolved for vocalizations. Overall, our results show that processing of fear expressed through music, engages some of the same brain areas known to be crucial for detecting and evaluating threat-related information.
authors.affiliation: International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS) H2V 4P3, Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM) H3G 2A8, Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada H2V 2S9, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Queretaro, Mexico C.P. 76230 and Department of Psychiatry and Douglas Mental Health University Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada H4H 1R3 International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS) H2V 4P3, Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM) H3G 2A8, Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada H2V 2S9, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Queretaro, Mexico C.P. 76230 and Department of Psychiatry and Douglas Mental Health University Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada H4H 1R3 International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS) H2V 4P3, Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM) H3G 2A8, Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada H2V 2S9, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Queretaro, Mexico C.P. 76230 and Department of Psychiatry and Douglas Mental Health University Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada H4H 1R3 william.aube@umontreal.ca.
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Aubé
authors.affiliation: International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS) H2V 4P3, Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM) H3G 2A8, Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada H2V 2S9, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Queretaro, Mexico C.P. 76230 and Department of Psychiatry and Douglas Mental Health University Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada H4H 1R3.
authors.forename: Arafat
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Angulo-Perkins
authors.affiliation: International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS) H2V 4P3, Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM) H3G 2A8, Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada H2V 2S9, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Queretaro, Mexico C.P. 76230 and Department of Psychiatry and Douglas Mental Health University Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada H4H 1R3 International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS) H2V 4P3, Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM) H3G 2A8, Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada H2V 2S9, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Queretaro, Mexico C.P. 76230 and Department of Psychiatry and Douglas Mental Health University Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada H4H 1R3 International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS) H2V 4P3, Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM) H3G 2A8, Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada H2V 2S9, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Queretaro, Mexico C.P. 76230 and Department of Psychiatry and Douglas Mental Health University Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada H4H 1R3.
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Peretz
authors.affiliation: International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS) H2V 4P3, Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM) H3G 2A8, Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada H2V 2S9, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Queretaro, Mexico C.P. 76230 and Department of Psychiatry and Douglas Mental Health University Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada H4H 1R3 International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS) H2V 4P3, Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM) H3G 2A8, Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada H2V 2S9, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Queretaro, Mexico C.P. 76230 and Department of Psychiatry and Douglas Mental Health University Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada H4H 1R3.
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Concha
authors.affiliation: International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS) H2V 4P3, Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM) H3G 2A8, Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada H2V 2S9, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Queretaro, Mexico C.P. 76230 and Department of Psychiatry and Douglas Mental Health University Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada H4H 1R3 International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS) H2V 4P3, Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM) H3G 2A8, Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada H2V 2S9, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Queretaro, Mexico C.P. 76230 and Department of Psychiatry and Douglas Mental Health University Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada H4H 1R3 International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS) H2V 4P3, Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM) H3G 2A8, Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada H2V 2S9, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Queretaro, Mexico C.P. 76230 and Department of Psychiatry and Douglas Mental Health University Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada H4H 1R3.
authors.forename: Jorge L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Armony
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000679:Amygdala / Q000502:physiology; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D003142:Communication; D005149:Facial Expression; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006240:Happiness; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009146:Music / Q000523:psychology*; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D063346:Singing / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: amygdala; emotional expressions; fear; hippocampus; music; vocalizations