Emotional origins of music

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The theory of the emotional origins of music , first proposed by David Teie, [1] [2] is based on the proposition that "... human music presents, concurrently and consecutively, a quickly changing array of acoustic triggers that are specific to Homo sapiens... each capable of inducing an emotional response." [3] The relevant acoustic triggers come from two primary sources: 1) sounds heard by the fetus in the womb, and 2) emotionally generated vocalizations. [4]

Contents

Fetal memory

The fetal memory, described as "Limbic system development memory" [3] includes elements of music that are found in the music of all cultures: pulse, meter, notes, syllabic contour, melodic rhythm, melodic accents, phrase length, phrase contour, and melodic frequency range. There are four conditions of fetal development that allow for the development of lasting memories from the sonic environment of the womb:

  1. The fetus is able to hear for four months prior to birth and responds to the mother's heartbeat. [5] [6]
  2. The sound of the maternal heartbeat and voice are loud enough in the womb to dominate the basal noise. [7] [8]
  3. Well-organized information that is incoming as the brain is being organized will tend to remain organized. [9]
  4. The brain structures responsible for emotions are almost completely formed at birth. [10]

Emotional vocalizations

Emotional vocalizations form the basis for the musical features timbre, tonality, frequency range, melodic contour, melodic rhythm, accents of melody, loudness, rate of syllabic repetition, vocal tract variables, tempo range, and the pervasive use of resonance-enhanced periodic sounds. [3] Sounds that closely match templates of recognition of emotionally generated vocalizations trigger appropriate emotional responses. [11] For example, the scream is recognized by our auditory processing as a human alarm call, triggering an attentive/fear response in the listener. The acoustic features of the scream present a loud periodic sound that has a harsh timbre. When an electric guitar presents loud periodic sounds that have been modified by a "fuzz box" creating a harsh timbre, the resulting combination is close enough to a match to the human alarm template for auditory processing to activate structures in the limbic system, triggering an attentive emotional response. [12]

References

  1. ↑ Snowdon, Charles T.; Teie, David (2010-02-23). "Affective responses in tamarins elicited by species-specific music". Biology Letters. 6 (1): 30–32. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2009.0593. ISSN   1744-9561. PMC   2817256 . PMID   19726444.
  2. ↑ Snowdon, Charles T.; Teie, David; Savage, Megan (May 2015). "Cats prefer species-appropriate music". Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 166: 106–111. doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2015.02.012.
  3. 1 2 3 Altenmüller, Eckart; Schmidt, Sabine; Zimmermann, Elke, eds. (2013). Evolution of emotional communication: from sounds in nonhuman mammals to speech and music in man. Series in affective science (1st ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-958356-0.
  4. ↑ Teie, David (2016-08-09). "A Comparative Analysis of the Universal Elements of Music and the Fetal Environment". Frontiers in Psychology. 07. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01158 . ISSN   1664-1078.
  5. ↑ Birnholz, Jason C.; Benacerraf, Beryl R. (1983-11-04). "The Development of Human Fetal Hearing". Science. 222 (4623): 516–518. Bibcode:1983Sci...222..516B. doi:10.1126/science.6623091. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   6623091.
  6. ↑ Porcaro, Camillo; Zappasodi, Filippo; Barbati, Giulia; Salustri, Carlo; Pizzella, Vittorio; Rossini, Paolo Maria; Tecchio, Franca (July 2006). "Fetal auditory responses to external sounds and mother's heart beat: Detection improved by Independent Component Analysis". Brain Research. 1101 (1): 51–58. doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2006.04.134. ISSN   0006-8993. PMID   16784726.
  7. ↑ Querleu, Denis; Renard, Xavier; Versyp, Fabienne; Paris-Delrue, Laurence; Crèpin, Gilles (July 1988). "Fetal hearing". European Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Reproductive Biology. 28 (3): 191–212. doi:10.1016/0028-2243(88)90030-5. ISSN   0301-2115. PMID   3061844.
  8. ↑ "359 Sound Levels in the Human Uterus". American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 166 (1): 375. January 1992. doi:10.1016/s0002-9378(12)91524-0. ISSN   0002-9378.
  9. ↑ Bisaz, Reto; Travaglia, Alessio; Alberini, Cristina M. (2014). "The Neurobiological Bases of Memory Formation: From Physiological Conditions to Psychopathology". Psychopathology. 47 (6): 347–356. doi:10.1159/000363702. ISSN   0254-4962. PMC   4246028 . PMID   25301080.
  10. ↑ Huang, Hao; Zhang, Jiangyang; Wakana, Setsu; Zhang, Weihong; Ren, Tianbo; Richards, Linda J.; Yarowsky, Paul; Donohue, Pamela; Graham, Ernest; van Zijl, Peter C.M.; Mori, Susumu (October 2006). "White and gray matter development in human fetal, newborn and pediatric brains". NeuroImage. 33 (1): 27–38. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.06.009. ISSN   1053-8119. PMID   16905335.
  11. ↑ Griffiths, Timothy D; Warren, Jason D (July 2002). "The planum temporale as a computational hub". Trends in Neurosciences. 25 (7): 348–353. doi:10.1016/s0166-2236(02)02191-4. ISSN   0166-2236. PMID   12079762.
  12. ↑ Poss, Robert M. (1998). "Distortion Is Truth". Leonardo Music Journal. 8: 45–48. doi:10.2307/1513399. ISSN   0961-1215. JSTOR   1513399.
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