THE NEUROSCIENCE OF MUSIC RECOGNITION: MUSIC’S CONNECTION WITH LANGUAGE AND ITS CAPACITY TO CAPTURE EMOTIONAL FEELING

Chris RobertsMUH 277

University of Maine at FarmingtonDr. Steve Pane

6/15/15

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The Neuroscience of Music Recognition: Music’s Connection with Language and its

Capacity to Capture Emotional Feeling

As individuals communicate and collaborate with others in societies, or local

communities, having the knowledge of what matters to express oneself and ones’

personal identity becomes of vital importance. The ability to express and relate with

other people in our surrounding area has come about in the past as an evolutionary

skill. As we have evolved into modern day civilians, the skill of expression has also

evolved from being a mechanism that revolves around survival to a skill that allows

emotion to be created and shared. As members of the community continue to use

the emotion of fear for both survival and recreation, the emotion that began with

our ancestors has now expanded due to human collaboration and industrial growth.

As humans evolved from our Australopithecus robustus ancestors towards our

modern day homo sapius form, our emotional database has evolved to present a

more conscious and unconscious ability to capture and feel emotions such as love,

joy and sadness as we began to have the ability to live a life that had aspects that did

not revolve around constant fear of survival.

Prior to going into the details of neuroscience, and more specifically the

aspect of the biological feeling of emotion, let us explore the definition of emotion

and the challenge that comes with simplifying such an abstruse concept. In their

well-known researched-based book Psychology of Music: From Sound to Significance,

Siu-Lan Tan, Peter Pfordresher and Rom Harre define emotion as being closely

linked with the similar biological and psychodynamic aspects of an individual’s

feelings and moods. Although feelings and moods link closely with the ideals of

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emotion, it is also mentioned that the word emotion has a very independent

definition. In this piece of literature, first published in 2010, emotions are thought to

include feelings (a subjective experience, e.g., sorrow), but also to involve appraisals

of a situation (e.g., death of a family member), to be focused on an object (family

member), and to be associated with the physical expression of emotion(s). This

definition is written in a manner that lets readers spark the argument that the

emotional response that comes with music recognition revolves around the ability

to spark a connection that brings out a certain emotional response. In 2008, another

researcher by the name of Koneccni worked with this aspect of emotion and music.

This work states that music elicits powerful psychological feelings that gravitate

towards the ideals of emotion when associated with extra musical thoughts or

occurrences (Koneccni 2008). The work of Koneccni is an example of the past

research that was cited and looked at by Siu-Lan Tan, Peter Pfordresher and Rom

Harre prior to their publication in 2010.

The biological model of neuroscience revolves around the understanding of

how these emotional responses result from both the conscious connection

individuals make with past and present parts of their lives and the unconscious

creation of emotion that sparks through association. Researchers as far back as

1959, such as Deryck Cooke, have stated that music is a language that is capable of

expressing certain definite things. An important focus becomes how the mind and

corresponding individual perceive and react. One example of how individuals may

differ in their personal thoughts and responses towards pieces of music is that of

enjoyment and/or overall judgment. Neurologically the brain has a different

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response to music depending on how an individual perceives it. These responses

impact very important portions of the brain’s construction that deal with aspects of

reward and fear.

For instance, evidence from an fMRI study suggests that consonant

musical intervals (which are pleasant and harmonious to the ear)

stimulate a region of the orbitofrontal cortex…which is associated

with reward and reinforcement (Blood, Zatorre, Bermudez, & Evans,

1999; see also Mitterschiffthaler, Fu, Dalton, Andrew, and Williams,

2007 for a similar result with longer musical excerpts). By contrast,

dissonant intervals increase activity in the parahippocampal gyrus, a

region that has intricate connections to the amygdala, the brain’s

‘warning center.’ Further evidence of the role of the amygdala as a

warning center extending to music comes from a study showing that

removal of the amygdala (to prevent seizure) leads to a reduced

ability to recognize ‘scary’ music (Tan, Pfordresher & Harre 2010)

 This research is groundbreaking due to the fact that it presents the argument that

neuroscience has a form of an identity, or perspective. This work shows that music

does not always have a definite set effect on the brain, but contrarily results from

the conscious and/or unconscious result of the individuals' reflection of the tune. As

music has the ability to spark neurological activity within the brain, it also becomes

clear that music and situational-emotional responses triggered by the amygdala are

connected. As the brain responds to unpleasant music, the amygdala is found to

present neurological activity as that of a dangerous situation. Danger, a result of

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fear, is the emotional response of the individual. These situational responses can be

seen as a result of individual identity and personal cognitive thought. Through

collaborative interaction with others and exposure to differing factors that may

trigger a reaction from the amygdala, the level of neurological activity that is found

in the fight/flight principle of the human mind begins to be altered by the

experience of the individual. This alteration makes the response not only situational,

but also personal due to the individuality. As researchers have found this activity to

be present within the brain, there is another strong reasoning for the belief in this

connection that we are exploring due to how the activity is not present with the

removal of this region of the brain.

This past research and information being discussed introduces the idea of

integration. This idea was discussed in the piece of research-based literature above,

and brings forth the addition of language to the conversation of understanding

neurological activity. Research has presented evidence of this idea of integration, or

the idea that similar brain regions allow us to communicate with either language or

music. Due to the ways in which the brain reacts, one can argue that music has a

similar construction to that of language. One researcher looked into this and did

psychological research with two patients with lesions, which deficits an individuals’

ability to process aspects of music. The topic of question being explored was if an

inability to process characteristics of music would affect the ability to sight and

comprehend “music-like” aspects of language. It was found that one of these

patients was unable to discriminate sentences, based on intonation. This choice of

wording refers to the pattern of rising and falling of pitch that can be distinguished

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in language. Mankind has become able to distinguish from the rising pitch of a

question and the falling pitch of the corresponding answer (Patel, Perez, Tramo, &

Labreque 1998).

As this similarity between music recognition and language comprehension is

explored, it is important to look at where the brain is triggered and the level of

neurological activity that occurs. Beginning with the idea of location within the

brain, past research introduces what brain regions have been found to commonly

home activity when recognizing and working with language. As the research being

explored presents areas of neurological activity, the comparison, and overall

similarities that come with the same active recognition and work with music is

analyzed to look for similar types of responses at the neurological level of the

human mind.

Various findings from studies using fMRI show brain activation in the

vicinity of Broca’s area (ventral part of the left frontal lobe) – long

considered the locus of speech production. For instance, the presence

of unexpected chords in music stimulates activity in Broca’s area

(Koelsch, Gunter, Cramon, Zysset, Lohmann, & Frederici, 2002)…

These findings support a newer view of Broca’s area and surrounding

regions as being responsible for processing syntax, rules for ordering

sequences in ways that are coherent to the perceiver, regardless of

whether the rules obtain for musical or linguistic sequences (Tan,

Pfordresher & Harre 2010).

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As research has been done on this area of the brain, there is a trend towards seeing

the Broca’s region of the brain to revolve around processing ordering sequences

rather then the locus of speech production mentioned earlier in the block quotation.

Tools such as fMRIs let psychologists and researchers find out more about the link

that music has with other topics of neurological activity.

The intensity of brain activity is something else that has been found to have

reasoning behind music’s connection with other parts of modern living. As one is

able to use fMRIs to find data on neurological activity, it is also possible to do the

same with ERP technology. This technology stands for Event Related Potential, and

records raw electrical activity within the brain known as EEG data. Researchers

used this method to find data for neurological responses to both language and

music. The research done with language focused on the word cry unexpectedly put

into a sentence. The unexpected word choice triggers a level of brain activity that

was measured at 400 ms on the EEG response. This data can be conclusive, but

presents a larger finding when compared against an aspect of musical recognition.

When exposed to a pitch that is out of key, and not expected by the listener, there is

a similar EEG neurological response. Although the activity found is similar, the level

of intensity was 600 ms rather than the 400 ms found with language. As individuals

have looked into these findings of neuroscience, they have started to follow the

trend of seeing language as a syntactic science rather than a semantic topic. This

sees the neurological activity activated by language as a result of grammatical

reasoning rather than that of both word choice and meaning. This is highlighted in

the 1983 work of Lerdahl and Jackendoff when they stated that notes in music do

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not refer to actions and events in the outside world but the structure of music does

follow rules that can be considered grammatical.

After understanding the activity and neuroscience that goes on in the brain

as a result of music, it is appropriate to now focus back towards emotion. As the past

few pages have connected the ideas of language and music, both pieces were spoken

about as ways in which to express emotion. As mentioned earlier, emotion can be

found to be a result of conscious and unconscious neurological thought and brain

region activity. As music and language are used to express current emotion, it can

also capture emotion found in the past. This is where we turn to the work of the well

renowned Guilaume Dufay, a famous musical composer of the 1400s in Italy. Dufay

is well known for his piece Nuper Rosarum Flores, which revolves around the

dedication and beauty of the Florence cathedral. This composition is important and

is talked about within this paper due to how it is a piece of music that presents

examples of all the arguments mentioned throughout this paper, such as music

having religious significance and a grammatical connection to language.

This connection between the culture of Italy and the neuroscience of the

mind will best be understood with an introduction of Dufay and his importance to

the past and present of Italy in modern day. A well-known composition of Dufay’s

was his dedication to the architecture that made up the Duomo residing in Florence,

Italy. The architect was a man by the name of Brunelleschi, who won a competition

announced on the nineteenth of August in 1419. Brunelleschi was awarded two

hundred gold Florence (the currency during the time period), and used a ring and

rib support system of two shells in his creation to let workers be able to sit on the

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first shell while constructing the second. The Duomo, besides a few modifications to

pieces of rotted wood, is still steady today. Once this historical masterpiece was

complete, a new mission was announced to create a piece of music for the building’s

dedication. This challenge was accepted by Dufay and completed on March twenty-

fifth in 1436.

Thanks to wool industry, the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, previously

known as the Duomo di Firenze was constructed and became one of the largest

churches in the world. The church used a large sum of timber from the forest and

marble that had to be transported into the city. Aspects of the cathedral, such as the

wealth and power presented by the buildings’ marble and the gothic style that was

used by the building’s designer Arnolfo di Cambio, started to give the building an

identity. Through its construction, the building’s identity became a very important

part of the Florence community. The experience of the cathedral’s style, art,

architecture, religious background, and historical significance now embodies a sum

of emotion that Dufay sought to capture in his piece for the dedication mentioned

prior.

Although the history is important, let us revert back to the focal aspect of the

music accompanying the magnificent architecture. As Dufay accepted this challenge

explained above, he chose to compose a piece that captured the emotion behind the

importance that the building has to the city. His piece was constructed in a manner

that followed the same mathematical flow of the building, and used the art of

measure and tempo to create an emotional response while at the same time

illustrating the rediscovered ability to identify the world through scientific

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achievement. While justifying the growth that has resulted from the past era of the

Middle Ages, there was a musical narrative that corresponded with the ideals of a

complex time period such as the renaissance. By creating a piece of music that

embodied aspects of both counterpoint and polyphony at different portions of the

piece to trigger a reaction from the audience, Dufay’s work became a symbolic piece

of art.

As Dufay composed Nuper Rosarum Flores he chose to present the ratios of

the music in a way that has religious significance. This religious aspect of the piece is

an example of two different topics being spoken about in this paper. The first deals

with the ability for music to capture historical significance. As the music follows

ratios that mirror the Temple of Solomon from the Bible, the piece has a significance

to the religious past of the Florence individuals. The second argument that comes

into play by the ratios of Nuper Rosarum Flores focuses on the connection that music

has with language. As the music follows a specific set ratio, the composer creates a

manner of flow and order that must be followed. This creation of musical order, and

specific rule, mirrors the grammatical structure of language. As the composition

presents counterpart and polyphony to create examples of texture, the piece is also

composed in a manner that has religious significance and linguistic connection.

This piece captured the emotional aspects of the renaissance era, and

followed the grammatical aspects presented by the mathematical art of the music’s

flow. Dufay used an artistic language to capture an emotion that is perceived by both

past and present individual’s neurological thought. It is best said in Psychology of

Music: From Sound to Significance;

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Just as languages communicate common ideas with different words

and syntax, so does music communicate similar ideas through

different tonal and rhythmic structures. The profound significance of

music and the immense joy that it has given people in all times and

places is almost certainly the result of the power of music to reveal

the intricacies and depths of human life (Tan, Pfordresher & Harre

2010).

After researching this ideal, and reviewing an event in history that symbolizes it, it

becomes evident that the human mind is constructed to have neurological

responses that establish musical recognition as similar to linguistic-grammatical

understanding. Both can be seen as tools to construct and capture cultures of time

periods found in both the past and present day. Ultimately, it may be that music

binds humanity together more effectively than does language, while at the same

time acting as a vehicle for cultural diversity just like language does (Tan,

Pfordresher & Harre 2010).

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