Fachbereich Erziehungswissenschaft und Psychologie der Freien Universität Berlin Emotional Experiences of Tension and Suspense: Psychological Mechanisms and Neural Correlates Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Doktor der Philosophie (Dr. phil.) vorgelegt von Moritz Lehne (M. Sc.) Berlin, 2014 Erstgutachter: Prof. Dr. Stefan Koelsch Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Arthur M. Jacobs Tag der Disputation: 1. Juli 2014 Acknowledgments First, I would like to thank my supervisor Prof. Dr. Stefan Koelsch for giving me the opportunity to work on this dissertation project as well as for his helpful guidance, invaluable advice, and continuous support. I am also very grateful to Prof. Dr. Arthur Jacobs for his support and for accepting to be the second reviewer of this thesis. I also thank Prof. Dr. Winfried Menninghaus, Dr. Martin Rohrmeier, and Philipp Engel for their help and advice in the context of the “Aesthetic Emotions” project of the Cluster “Languages of Emotion” from which this dissertation project derived. The Cluster “Languages of Emotion” funded by the Excellence Initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research also provided the financial support for this project. I would also like to thank Dr. Evgeniya Kirilina, Christian Kainz, and Franca Fabiunke at the Dahlem Institute for Neuroimaging of Emotion for their help with the fMRI measurements. Thanks also go to the participants who took part in the studies. Last, but most importantly, I thank all the great people I had the privilege to meet during my time in the Neuromusic group who all contributed to the successful completion of this dissertation project, in particular Martin Rohrmeier, Daniela Ordóñez, Aleksandra Gulka, Renzo Torrecuso, Esperanza Jubera, Kamila Borowiak, Stavros Skouras, Liila Taruffi, Philipp Engel, Sebastian Jentschke, Corinna Pehrs, Yu Fukuda, Terzio Druml, John DePriest, Evan Gitterman, Donald Gollmann, Maria Sumpf, Tobias Gfesser, Anastasia Glushko, Bas Visser, Daniel González Moya, Laura Hahn, Shuang Guo, Vienna Dönni, Alice Kaack, Stephanie Appelhans, Kurt Steinmetzger, Chun-Ting Hsu, Arash Aryani, Anne Märtin, Niloofar Keshtiari, Honorata Hafke, Gosia Wrzosek, Eugen Wassiliwizky, Isabel Bohrn, Ulrike Altmann, and Christian Mikutta. Contents Summary.....................................................................................................................................6 Zusammenfassung.......................................................................................................................8 List of publications....................................................................................................................10 1 General introduction..............................................................................................................11 1.1 Tension and emotion in music and their neural correlates.............................................13 1.2 Tension and emotion in literature...................................................................................15 1.3 Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)............................................................17 1.4 Research aims of the dissertation project.......................................................................21 2 The influence of different structural features on felt musical tension in two piano pieces by Mozart and Mendelssohn..........................................................................................................24 2.1 Introduction....................................................................................................................25 2.2 Methods..........................................................................................................................27 2.2.1 Participants.............................................................................................................27 2.2.2 Stimuli....................................................................................................................27 2.2.3 Experimental Design..............................................................................................29 2.2.4 Experimental Procedure.........................................................................................30 2.2.5 Data Analysis..........................................................................................................30 2.3 Results............................................................................................................................33 2.3.1 Correlation Analysis...............................................................................................35 2.3.2 Qualitative Analysis...............................................................................................37 2.4 Discussion......................................................................................................................39 2.5 Conclusion......................................................................................................................46 3 Tension-related activity in the orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala: an fMRI study with music.........................................................................................................................................47 3.1 Introduction....................................................................................................................48 3.2 Methods..........................................................................................................................52 3.2.1 Participants.............................................................................................................52 3.2.2 Stimuli....................................................................................................................52 3.2.3 Experimental procedure..........................................................................................53 3.2.4 Image acquisition....................................................................................................55 3.2.5 Image processing and statistical analysis...............................................................56 3.3 Results............................................................................................................................59 3.3.1 Behavioral data.......................................................................................................59 3.3.2 Functional MRI data...............................................................................................60 3.3.3 Functional connectivity / psychophysiological interactions (PPI).........................64 3.4 Discussion......................................................................................................................66 3.5 Conclusion......................................................................................................................71 4 Tension-resolution patterns as a key element of aesthetic experience: psychological principles and underlying brain mechanisms............................................................................72 4.1 Introduction....................................................................................................................73 4.2 Tension-resolution patterns: psychological principles...................................................76 4.2.1 Uncertainty.............................................................................................................77 4.2.2 Expectancy, prediction, and anticipation................................................................78 4.2.3 The emotional valence of tension...........................................................................81 4.2.4 The paradox of repeated exposure..........................................................................82 4.2.5 Tension-resolution patterns and the aesthetic trajectory........................................84 4.3 Musical tension...............................................................................................................85 4.3.1 Empirical research..................................................................................................88 4.3.2 Musical tension and emotion..................................................................................91 4.3.3 Underlying brain mechanisms................................................................................92 4.4 Summary........................................................................................................................95 5 On first looking into Hoffmann's “The Sandman”: Neural correlates of suspense during the first reading of a literary text.....................................................................................................96 5.1 Introduction....................................................................................................................97 5.2 Methods........................................................................................................................101 5.2.1 Participants...........................................................................................................101 5.2.2 Stimuli..................................................................................................................101 5.2.3 Experimental procedure........................................................................................102 5.2.4 Image acquisition..................................................................................................103