title: Investigating the emotional response to room acoustics: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study.
abstract: While previous research has demonstrated the powerful influence of pleasant and unpleasant music on emotions, the present study utilizes functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to assess the positive and negative emotional responses as demonstrated in the brain when listening to music convolved with varying room acoustic conditions. During fMRI scans, subjects rated auralizations created in a simulated concert hall with varying reverberation times. The analysis detected activations in the dorsal striatum, a region associated with anticipation of reward, for two individuals for the highest rated stimulus, though no activations were found for regions associated with negative emotions in any subject.
authors.affiliation: Graduate Program in Acoustics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA msl224@psu.edu, vigeant@engr.psu.edu.
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Lawless
authors.affiliation: Graduate Program in Acoustics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA msl224@psu.edu, vigeant@engr.psu.edu.
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Vigeant
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000162:Acoustics; D000328:Adult; D059031:Anticipation, Psychological; D002421:Caudate Nucleus / Q000502:physiology; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions; D005160:Facility Design and Construction; D005260:Female; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009146:Music; D009622:Noise; D057181:Pleasure; D012201:Reward; D055815:Young Adult