Emotion processing of major, minor, and dissonant chords: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Karen Johanne Pallesen, Elvira Brattico, Christopher Bailey, Antti Korvenoja, Juha Koivisto, Albert Gjedde, Synnöve Carlson

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

110 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Musicians and nonmusicians listened to major, minor, and dissonant musical chords while their BOLD brain responses were registered with functional magnetic resonance imaging. In both groups of listeners, minor and dissonant chords, compared with major chords, elicited enhanced responses in several brain areas, including the amygdala, retrosplenial cortex, brain stem, and cerebellum, during passive listening but not during memorization of the chords. The results indicate that (1) neural processing in emotion-related brain areas is activated even by single chords, (2) emotion processing is enhanced in the absence of cognitive requirements, and (3) musicians and nonmusicians do not differ in their neural responses to single musical chords during passive listening.
Original languageEnglish
JournalAnnals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Volume1060
Pages (from-to)450-3
Number of pages3
ISSN0077-8923
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2005
Externally publishedYes

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