BOCA RATON, Fla., Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Researchers at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton found listeners' brains react to musicians' passion.
The researchers tested listener responses to two recordings of the same piece of music played on the same piano. One version was "synthesized" and the other contained the same melody, rhythm, average tempo and loudness with added "human performance nuances" -- expressive, dynamic changes in tempo and loudness added by the performer.
The study, published in PLoS One, identified the nuanced changes in tempo and loudness that resulted in emotion-related brain activity.
"It had previously been theorized that the mirror neuron system provides a mechanism through which listeners feel the performer's emotion, making musical communication a form of empathy," principal investigator Edward Large said in a statement. "Our results tend to support that hypothesis."
Large and colleagues used fMRI neuroimaging -- a specialized magnetic resonance imaging scan -- which measured changes in brain neural activity as participants listened to both performances. However, participants used computer software to report emotional responses in real time while listening before and after the fMRI.
"We deliberately implemented these three steps in our study to ensure the consistency of the emotions our participants reported in the behavioral study with the results of the fMRI," Large said.
