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Listening to Music As a Re-Creative Process: Physiological,Psychological, and Psychoacoustical Correlates of Chills and Strong Emotions

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Listening to Music As a Re-Creative Process: Physiological,Psychological, and Psychoacoustical Correlates of Chills and Strong Emotions Chills and Strong Emotions 297 LISTENING TO MUSIC AS A RE-CREATIVE PROCESS: PHYSIOLOGICAL,PSYCHOLOGICAL, AND PSYCHOACOUSTICAL CORRELATES OF CHILLS AND STRONG EMOTIONS OLIVER GREWE,FREDERIK NAGEL,REINHARD publications, as a parameter for strong emotions in KOPIEZ, AND ECKART ALTENMÜLLER response to music. Except in cases where a cited author Hanover University of Music and Drama used the term “thrill,”from here on we will use the term Hanover, Germany “chills” according to Panksepp’s discussion of the terms (Panksepp, 1995). Chills are a subtle nervous tremor FEELINGS IN RESPONSE TO music are often accompa- caused by intense emotion. Goldstein used them as an nied by measurable bodily reactions such as goose indicator for strong emotional responses, allowing the bumps or shivers down the spine, commonly called combination of psychological self-report with distinct “chills.” In order to investigate distinct acoustical and bodily reactions such as “goose bumps” or shivers down musical structural elements related to chill reactions, the spine. Goldstein applied music as a stimulus in reported chill reactions and bodily reactions were order to test the hypothesis that thrills (chills), as an measured continuously. Chill reactions did not show a example of emotional reactions, are mediated by simple stimulus-response pattern or depend on person- endorphins. He studied the effect of the opiate antago- ality traits, such as low sensation seeking and high nist naloxone on the frequency, duration, and intensity reward dependence. Musical preferences and listening of thrills and found some evidence that thrills may be situations also played a role in chill reactions. Participants attenuated by naloxone. Interestingly, not all partici- seemed to react to musical patterns, not to mere pants were susceptible to thrills. Out of the three groups acoustical triggers. The entry of a voice and changes in of participants, 10% of the music students, 20% of the volume were shown to be the most reactive patterns. medical students, and 47% of the employees of an These results were also confirmed by a retest experiment. addiction research center responded in the question- naire that they had never experienced thrills. Received October 28, 2005, accepted July 7, 2006. Chills can be a fascinating phenomenon to study Key words: Emotion, Chills, Music, Physiology, strong emotional reactions to aesthetic stimuli since Psychoacoustics they allow for verification of subjective reports with physiological measurements. They are considered to be distinct events, and therefore, their relationship to the structure of the stimulus can be examined. Several of MOTIONS INFLUENCE OUR DECISIONS in everyday the following studies have taken advantage of chills as life, regulate our motivations for actions, and an objective indicator of strong emotions. Eenhance memory formation (Juslin & Sloboda, Sloboda (1991) used questionnaires to reveal the rela- 2001; Panksepp, 1998; Roth, 2003). Most people listen tionship of thrills (chills) to the structural parts of the to music to influence their emotions (Panksepp, 1995). music that elicit them. He found that there were distinct But what power do aesthetic stimuli such as music truly musical features that aroused different bodily reactions. possess to influence and “designate” emotions? Can our When he asked participants about thrills experienced in moods be manipulated by the “right” music or do we the five years prior to the study, Sloboda found that up to actively construct our feelings using music as a kind of 90% of the people were susceptible to “shivers down the tool? Listening to music appears to be a passive pastime, spine”and 62% to “goose pimples.”Many other phenom- but is it really that passive? ena, such as “tears”or “yawning”were summarized under In 1980, Goldstein (1980) published a study based the term thrills, but in a more detailed analysis, only on questionnaires, which for the first time used “shivers,” “tears,” and “racing heart” could be associated “thrills,”or “chills” as the phenomenon was called in later with distinct musical structures. Shivers were mainly Music Perception VOLUME 24, ISSUE 3, PP. 297–314, ISSN 0730-7829, ELECTRONIC ISSN 1533-8312 © 2007 BY THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PLEASE DIRECT ALL REQUESTS FOR PERMISSION TO PHOTOCOPY OR REPRODUCE ARTICLE CONTENT THROUGH THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS’S RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS WEBSITE, HTTP://WWW.UCPRESSJOURNALS.COM/REPRINTINFO.ASP.DOI:10.1525/MP.2007.24.3.297 298 O. Grewe, F. Nagel, R. Kopiez, and E. Altenmüller induced by new or unprepared harmonies and sudden More recent work on chills was done by Craig (2005), dynamic or textural changes. Altogether, Sloboda’s work who combined physiological measurements of skin con- demonstrated for the first time a relationship between ductance level (Galvanic Skin Response, GSR) with the bodily reactions, such as shivers down the spine, and a subjective reports of chills made by his participants. The conscious, aesthetic appreciation of an acoustic stimulus. study suggests that chills are associated with discrete Panksepp (1995) studied the chills of undergraduate physiological events, such that GSRs were significantly students by having them listen to 14 pieces of music higher during chills than before or after chill events. self-selected by the participants, and four additional Rickard (2004) found higher levels of both chills and skin pieces chosen by the researcher. According to his conductance in response to music that elicited intense results, sad pieces were more effective for arousing emotions, compared to less emotion-inducing stimuli. chills, and women seemed to be most susceptible to Rickard used both chills and skin conductance as indica- chill reactions. Panksepp’s analysis of chills in a time tors of physiological arousal. For a review concerning series experiment was novel. The students listened to emotions and physiological reactions, see Cacioppo, the three pieces that turned out to be the most effective Klein, Berntson, & Hatfield (1993), Krumhansl (1997), ones in another part of this study. They raised their and Stemmler (1998). hands to indicate when they had perceived a chill. Using Despite these empirical efforts, limitations remain. this procedure, he discovered that crescendos seemed to First, all of these studies concentrated on singular somehow be effective, and that a solo instrument aspects of chill experiences, such as the underlying emerging from a softer orchestral background was brain region or physiological patterns (Blood & especially influential. In another article, Panksepp & Zatorre, 2001; Craig, 2005). Second, the older literature Bernatzky (2002) developed a hypothesis regarding the focused on the subjective experience of chills and their evolutionary roots of chill reactions. The authors pro- relation to musical patterns (Gabrielsson & Lindström, posed that music might contain acoustic properties of 1993; Panksepp, 1995; Sloboda, 1991). Third, most the separation calls of young animals, which stimulate researchers investigated only a highly selective social caretakers to exhibit social care and attention. Thus, and educational group of participants, mostly students. music may actually activate a separation-distress brain The purpose of the present experiment was to exam- system that provides motivational urgency for social ine the chill phenomenon through converging psycho- reunion responses. logical, physiological, and psychoacoustical methods, Gabrielsson and Lindström (1993, 2003) used an both through inter- and intra-individual comparisons. approach to study “peak” emotional experiences in Since the study of the emotional effects of music is response to music that they termed “SEM’s” (Strong handicapped by a lack of appropriate research para- Experiences with Music), but they did not explicitly digms (Scherer, 2004), we tried to overcome this handi- concentrate on chill reactions, although they belonged cap by combining available methods, and using the to one of the categories they found. They simply asked different facets they reveal, to develop a preliminary participants to describe their most intense experiences hypothesis of how chills may be triggered by music. while listening to music, and categorized participants’ The main research questions were: (a) how frequent statements. The authors found that all participant is the chill response; (b) what are the musical and responses could be categorized as physical responses, acoustical features that have the power to arouse such perception, cognition, emotion, transcendental, and strong emotional responses; and (c) are chills in existential aspects. The emotion most commonly felt response to music a general phenomenon or are there during SEM’s was happiness; whereas negative feelings specific chill responders that can be characterized by were seldom evoked by SEM’s. personality, musical education, experience, or prefer- Blood and Zatorre (2001) used PET to reveal the ence? In sum, what is induced by music and how does brain systems associated with chill reactions when lis- the listener stimulate himself in order to elicit the tening to music. They found structures such as the strong emotions that lead to chills? nucleus accumbens, the ventral tegmental area, thala- mus, insula, and anterior cingulate to be more active Method during a chill reaction, while activity in the amygdala and ventral medial prefrontal cortex was reduced. This In the present experiment, we combined
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