Music stirs up emotional response

December 21, 2010

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtQHaUKo9Vc&feature=fvsr]

New research published in the journal PlOs One has pinpointed the factors of a musical performance that cause a shift in your emotions and how this affects our brain activity after a moving performance.

To conduct the study, participants listened to both a recording of a piece of music performed by an expert musician on a computerized piano, and then to the same song, only this time it was a synthesized version created by a computer. The two had the same musical elements however the one performed by the musician featured the dynamic changes in tempo and loudness,  contrasts that pianists use to evoke an emotional response. And it was proven that the human touch–the pianist’s recorded performance–stirred up the emotional neural centres of the brain more than the mechanical performance.

And I am sure that is why I enjoyed this NKOTBSB performance as much as I did.

Filed under: Culture,Random Swellness,Swellbeing