Project 3 content map by Dev Patel

Why does music effect our emotions?

dp1315_ — 2023-11-20 04:04:39 UTC

How does it effect our emotions

dp1315_ — 2023-11-20 04:05:11 UTC

What is effected in our body by music?

dp1315_ — 2023-11-20 04:12:00 UTC

Music can effect several parts of our nervous system as all music is is audio stimulus. Music can effect, "structures involved in emotion such as hypothalamus, amygdala, insular cortex, and orbitofrontal cortex" which are all regulated by our heart rate. So in short music effects our heart rate which changes the way we feel and what emotions we experience

Heart Rate

dp1315_ — 2023-11-20 05:24:00 UTC

Emotion is entirely regulated by our heart rate. The faster our heart beats the more intense our emotions are. Different types of music can change the way our heart beats, which can change the way we feel. "The increase of HR accompanying music-evoked emotional arousal is consistent with the observation that HR increases during music-evoked frissons (i.e. intensely pleasurable feelings with high-emotional arousal" Heart is the key component that controls the change in emotion. That being said different types of music can effect heart rate in different ways.

Different music's effect on heart rate

dp1315_ — 2023-11-20 07:40:09 UTC

Higher BPM, more exciting music causes a raise in heart rate higher than that of tranquilizing or calm music. Along with a raise in heart rate we can also see that respiration rate increases too as a result of increase heart rate. We also see that during musical frissons (shivers or goosebumps associated with listing to impactful music) heart rate also increases as well as respiration. When we listen to music that "hypes" us up or excites the body we see that there is a clear increase in heart rate and respiration. Using this we may be able to use intense music to our advantage.

How can we use the effect music has to help us?

dp1315_ — 2023-11-20 07:41:39 UTC

Emotional Valence

dp1315_ — 2023-11-20 07:46:48 UTC

Emotional valence is the pleasure or displeasure we feel through a certain emotion. For example, sadness is an unpleasant feeling. Due to music's effect on emotion and heart rate, we can use music to control emotional valence, hence controlling whether or not we are pleased or displeased. "positive valence (pleasure) is associated with higher HR...and higher respiratory frequency" So by using songs that promote higher heart rate such as exciting music we can directly control our pleasant emotions.

Controlling our negative emotions with music

dp1315_ — 2023-11-20 07:58:03 UTC

Music can be used to relieve anxiety and depressive feelings. Due the the relaxing properties of tranquilizing music, as it drops the heart rate there is some belief that music can relax those suffering with anxiety. "concluded that music interventions appear to provide a viable alternative to sedatives and anti-anxiety drugs for reducing anxiety". Along with that due to the correlation between cardio vascular disease and depression we can use music to aid with that as well. "Since several studies have demonstrated that pleasant music can activate the reward system music might also be useful in treating depression and CVD associated with depression". Music can be used as a supplement treatment or even as an alternative to some of the common treatments to anxiety and depression.

Music's physical effect

dp1315_ — 2023-11-20 08:05:01 UTC

Music can have an effect on our emotions, but our emotions have an effect on our body physically. For example if you are enraged your body produces more adrenaline giving you more strength. Using this principle along with the evidence that exciting music increases heart rate, blood flow, and respiration we can find some physical uses for music. The most prominent one being the use of intense music to invoke strong emotion in the gym in order to lift heavy weight or push yourself to the absolute limit. Our bodies are capable of incredible things when pushed to the limit, however it is difficult to reach that point. Music can be the short cut and invoke strong emotions in order to reap the benefit of being pushed to the limit. Along with that the increased respiration and blood flow will also aid in physical activity which may help you perform better in the gym.

Research: There is more to find out

dp1315_ — 2023-11-20 08:09:27 UTC

With all this being said there simply isn't enough research to back these studies up. Most of these results were done on small samples and in very specific scenarios. Some of the testing conditions were not perfect either. However with the small research done there is evidence of correlation and with further testing there may be a strong connection with music and emotion.