The Rewarding Aspects of Music Listening Are Related to Degree of Emotional Arousal

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 4; no. 10; p. e7487
• Main Authors: Salimpoor, Valorie N., Benovoy, Mitchel, Longo, Gregory, Cooperstock, Jeremy R., Zatorre, Robert J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 16.10.2009; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Arousal; Arousal - physiology; Auditory Perception - physiology; Behavior; Blood Flow Velocity; Blood volume; Body Temperature; Brain research; Chills; Cocaine; Computer & video games; Connectivity; Dissociation; Dopamine; Emotions; Emotions - physiology; Female; Galvanic Skin Response; Heart Rate; Human subjects; Humans; Interdisciplinary aspects; Laboratories; Listening; Male; Music; Music - psychology; Nervous system; Neuroscience/Behavioral Neuroscience; Neuroscience/Cognitive Neuroscience; Neuroscience/Experimental Psychology; Neuroscience/Psychology; Neuroscience/Sensory Systems; Neurosciences; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Physiological aspects; Physiology; Physiology/Cognitive Neuroscience; Physiology/Integrative Physiology; Pleasure; Ratings; Reinforcement; Respiration; Respiratory Rate; Skin Temperature; Sympathetic nervous system; Canada; Montreal Quebec Canada; Quebec Canada
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0007487

Listening to music is amongst the most rewarding experiences for humans. Music has no functional resemblance to other rewarding stimuli, and has no demonstrated biological value, yet individuals continue listening to music for pleasure. It has been suggested that the pleasurable aspects of music listening are related to a change in emotional arousal, although this link has not been directly investigated. In this study, using methods of high temporal sensitivity we investigated whether there is a systematic relationship between dynamic increases in pleasure states and physiological indicators of emotional arousal, including changes in heart rate, respiration, electrodermal activity, body temperature, and blood volume pulse. Twenty-six participants listened to self-selected intensely pleasurable music and "neutral" music that was individually selected for them based on low pleasure ratings they provided on other participants' music. The "chills" phenomenon was used to index intensely pleasurable responses to music. During music listening, continuous real-time recordings of subjective pleasure states and simultaneous recordings of sympathetic nervous system activity, an objective measure of emotional arousal, were obtained. Results revealed a strong positive correlation between ratings of pleasure and emotional arousal. Importantly, a dissociation was revealed as individuals who did not experience pleasure also showed no significant increases in emotional arousal. These results have broader implications by demonstrating that strongly felt emotions could be rewarding in themselves in the absence of a physically tangible reward or a specific functional goal.