Evrim Yazgin
Cosmos science journalist
Neuroscientists worked with musicians to compose new pieces of music to study how the brain tracks and shifts between different emotional states.
The research is published in the journal eNeuro.
“In everyday life, our emotions flexibly shift between states based on the temporal and social context,” the authors write. “Our ability to move from one emotional state to the next in response to our environment is crucial for our well-being, and our ability to understand and predict these emotion transitions in others is crucial for forming social connections.”
They note that previous studies have identified regions of the brain involved in these emotional responses but do not show what is happening in the brain during the transitions.
A sample of 39 test subjects was used to track brain activity while listening to pieces of music composed specifically for the experiment to encourage emotional shifts in participants.
Brain activity was monitored using fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) to assess the response of participants. They found distinct patterns of activity in brain areas associated with sound processing and social cognition during musical transitions meant to evoke emotional shifts.
The researchers found that patterns of brain activity were influenced by the previous emotional state.
For example, someone listening to a sad passage of music had different brain activity if they were previously listening to a joyful passage compared to a tense passage.
Transitions were also quicker when emotions were similar.
The findings suggest that a person’s previous emotional state influences their current neural activity and emotional responses.
Such insights may help understand and treat mental health issues.
“We know that people who suffer from mood disorders or depression often demonstrate emotional rigidity, where they basically get stuck in an emotional state,” says first author Matthew Sachs from Columbia University in the US.
“This study suggests that maybe we could take someone with depression, for instance, and use the approach we developed to identify neural markers for the emotional rigidity that keeps them in a very negative state.”