Study correlates recognising emotions in music and people
People who can adeptly interpret other people's emotional states may also be better at recognising the emotions expressed by music, new study suggests
For centuries, humans have been creating music, yet its biological purpose has remained a mystery. However, a new study by University of Oregon musicologist and cognitive scientist Zachary Wallmark and psychologist Benjamin Tabak of Southern Methodist University, as reported in the journal Emotion, may shed some light on the matter.
The study suggests that music may facilitate social connection, much like empathy does. To test this, Wallmark and Tabak used a more objective measure; participants' ability to interpret the feelings of others. After watching videos of people talking about emotional experiences and listening to pieces of piano music composed to express a story, the participants had to identify the emotions conveyed in the clips.
Results showed that individuals who were more accurate at detecting the emotions in the video were also better at assessing the emotions presented by the music. This finding points that there may be shared neural processes underlying both music and empathy, according to Zachary Wallmark.
Wallmark and his team are currently exploring this further, to examine if the same neural pathways are involved. If so, this could lead to the creation of therapeutic and social skills training for individuals with social-cognitive impairments.
[Via University of Oregon]
