Inner World: The Mystery of Music Perception

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The American poet Henry Longfellow called music the universal language of humanity. And so it is: music appeals primarily to our feelings, therefore it is understandable to everyone, regardless of gender, nationality and age. Although different people may be aware of it in their own way. What determines the musical perception and why some people like rock, while others like classical, let's try to figure it out.

Soul strings

The term "musical language" is not at all a metaphor: scientists are seriously arguing that it has a right to exist. Music is, in fact, a kind of language, the only question is what in this case is called a "word". Psychologist Galina Ivanchenko in her work "Psychology of Music Perception" talks about such components of musical language as timbre, rhythm, tempo, pitch, harmony and loudness.

Musical perception itself is a reflex activity that is carried out by the nervous system under the influence of an irritant - sound waves. It manifests itself in a change in the rhythm of breathing and heartbeat, muscle tension, the work of the internal secretion organs, and so on. So goosebumps from listening to your favorite songs is a very real physical phenomenon.

And they appear, by the way, for a reason: our brain is able to distinguish harmonious music from inharmonious. Therefore, musical intervals are divided into consonances and dissonances. The former create in us a sense of completeness, peace and euphony, and the latter, tension and conflict that requires completion, that is, a transition to consonance.

The perception of music is also influenced by its tempo, rhythm, strength and scope. These means not only convey the corresponding emotions, but also are similar to them in general. “In a sweeping theme we hear an expression of courage, a bright, full-blooded experience, a fussy theme is associated with confusion or cowardice, a petty feeling, its superficial character, convulsive - with an unbalanced,“agitated”mood,” writes in his article “Levels of perception of a musical text O. I. Tsvetkova.

Music can talk about something and even manipulate our emotions. Loss or depressed people often listen to sad songs. Studies have shown that in this way, music partially compensates for the loss of another person, and also supports, as if reflecting his emotions. In the meantime, listening to positive tunes for just two weeks increases the degree of joy and happiness. In Germany, disturbing songs are used to reduce the level of theft on the subway: listening to such music increases the pressure, and it is more difficult for thieves to decide on a crime. There is also evidence that music makes exercise easier.

Music is even able to imitate our speech, or rather its intonation. “In melody, the same human ability is revealed as in speech: to directly express their emotions by changing the pitch and other properties of sound, albeit in a different form. In other words, melody, as a special, specifically musical way of emotional expression, is the result of a generalization of the expressive possibilities of speech intonation, which have received a new design and independent development,”the author continues.

It is interesting that not only a certain style of music has its own language, but also a particular composer, piece, and even a part of it. One melody speaks the language of sadness, while the other tells of joy.

Music is like a drug

It is known that a melody that a person likes affects his brain, like delicious food and sex: the pleasure hormone dopamine is released. What area of gray matter is activated when you listen to your favorite track? To find out, the renowned musicologist and neurologist at the Montreal Institute of Neurology Robert Zatorre, together with colleagues, conducted an experiment. After interviewing 19 volunteers aged 18 to 37 years (10 of them were women, nine were men) about their musical preferences, the scientists gave them to listen to and evaluate 60 pieces of music.

All tracks were heard by the subjects for the first time. Their task was to evaluate each composition and pay for it from their own funds from 0, 99 to two dollars in order to receive a disc with the tracks they liked at the end of the experiment. So scientists have ruled out the possibility of false assessments on the part of the subjects - hardly anyone would want to pay their hard-earned money for unpleasant music.

At the same time, during the experiment, each participant was connected to an MRI machine, so scientists could accurately record everything that happens in the subjects' brain while listening. The results were quite interesting. First, the researchers found that it takes only 30 seconds for a person to figure out whether they like a particular composition. Secondly, it was found that a good melody activates several zones in the brain at once, but the nucleus accumbens became the most sensitive - the one that is activated when something meets our expectations. It is this that enters the so-called center of pleasure and manifests itself during alcoholic and drug intoxication, as well as during sexual arousal.

The melody obsessively repeating in the head is a phenomenon that many scientists have seriously studied. Experts have come to the conclusion that 98% of people face it, regardless of gender. True, repetition lasts longer on average in women and is more annoying. There are, however, methods of getting rid of the obsessive melody and even preventive measures against relapse. Scientists advise solving all sorts of problems at this moment: for example, solving Sudoku, anagrams, or just reading a novel and even chewing gum.

“It's amazing that a person is anticipating and excited about something completely abstract - about the sound that he needs to hear,” says one of the study co-authors, Dr. Valori Salimpur. - Each person's nucleus accumbens has an individual shape, which is why it works in a special way. It is also worth noting that due to the constant interactions of the parts of the brain with each melody, we have our own emotional associations."

Listening to music also activates the auditory cortex of the brain. Interestingly, the more we like this or that track, the stronger its interaction with us - and the more new neural connections are formed in the brain, the very ones that form the basis of our cognitive abilities.

Tell me what are you listening and I will tell who you are

Psychologists have found that adolescents who experience certain difficulties in life are more likely to turn to music that is aggressive in its content: for example, they are deprived of parental care or they are offended by their peers. But classics and jazz, as a rule, are chosen by more prosperous children. In the first case, music is important for emotional relaxation, in the second - by itself. True, aggressive songs are often characteristic of all adolescents, as they carry an element of rebellious spirit. With age, the tendencies towards self-expression and maximalism in the majority noticeably decrease, therefore, musical preferences also change - to more calm and measured ones.

However, musical tastes do not always depend on the presence of intrapersonal conflicts: they are often trivially predetermined by temperament. This is understandable, because in the work of the brain, as in a piece of music, there is a rhythm. Its high amplitude prevails among the owners of a strong type of the nervous system - choleric and sanguine people, low - among melancholic and phlegmatic people. Therefore, the former prefer vigorous activity, the latter - more measured. This fact is reflected in musical preferences as well. People with a strong type of nervous system, as a rule, prefer rhythmic music that does not require high concentration of attention (rock, pop, rap and other popular genres). Those who have a weak type of temperament choose calm and melodic genres - classical and jazz. At the same time, it is known that phlegmatic and melancholic people are able to penetrate deeper into the essence of a piece of music than more superficial sanguine and choleric people.

However, often the choice of melody depends on the mood. A frustrated sanguine person will listen to Mozart's Requiem, while a joyful melancholic person will prefer to have fun with guitar bass. The opposite tendency has also been noticed: the tempo of the music is able to influence the amplitude of the rhythm of the brain. A measured melody lowers it, and a fast one increases it. This fact prompted scientists to think that listening to different musical genres can even increase the child's creativity by making his brain work in a particular rhythm.

It is also interesting that such conclusions seem to sweep aside the existence of "bad" music: any, even the most seemingly worthless piece is a unique experience of experiencing certain feelings, a special response to the world around us. The same goes for genres: there are no good or bad ones, all are important in their own way.

Scriabin or Queen?

Another curious study on musical preferences was carried out under the direction of the American sociologist David Greenberg from Cambridge. This time, as many as four thousand volunteers took part in it, who were first offered a choice of different statements, for example: “I always feel when a person says one thing and thinks another” or “If I buy audio equipment, I always pay attention to technical details..

Then they were given 50 musical compositions of different genres to listen to. The subjects rated the music as liked or not on a nine-point scale. After this, the statements were compared with musical preferences.

It turned out that those with well-developed empathy and sensitivity liked rhythm and blues (a musical style of a song and dance genre), soft rock (light or "soft" rock) and what is called mellow music, that is, melodies with a soft and pleasant sound. In general, these styles cannot be called energetic, but they are permeated with emotional depth and are often saturated with negative emotions. Those who preferred more rhythmic, tense music with positive emotions and a relatively complex device, the researchers called analysts - people with a rational mindset. In this case, the preferences concerned not only styles, but even specific compositions. For example, the songs of jazz singer Billie Holiday "All of me" and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" by Queen were more popular with empaths, and one of Scriabin's etudes, as well as songs "God save the Queen" by The Sex Pistols and "Enter Sandman" musicians from Metallica to analysts.

Scientists have found that those who can get goosebumps from music consider themselves more friendly and meek. And another 66 percent of people who noticed the effect of goose bumps on themselves while listening to certain melodies note that at that moment they had a good mood and physical well-being, while among those respondents who did not feel goose bumps, a good mood and only 46 percent were feeling well. There are people who do not experience the goose bumps effect when listening to music. Research has shown that these "unfortunate" people have a reduced number of connections between the zones responsible for the auditory perception of music and the zones that are responsible for moral judgments.

Other studies published in 2011 found that those with an increased potential for openness to experience tend to prefer more complex and varied music, such as classical, jazz, and eclecticism, than conservative individuals. Musical preference is also associated with indicators such as introversion and extraversion. Scientists have found that extroverted people tend to prefer happier social music, such as pop, hip-hop, rap or electronic music. Introverts tend to go for rock and classics. In addition, extroverts tend to listen to music more often than introverts and are more likely to use it as a background. And more benevolent people are able to get more emotions from listening to music than those who do not have this quality.