Brain responses to two types of moved experiences

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K18424
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Cognitive science; Experimental psychology
• Research Institution: National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
• Principal Investigator: Kazuma Mori 国立研究開発法人情報通信研究機構, 脳情報通信融合研究センター脳情報工学研究室, 研究員 (70754696)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 情動 / 感動 / 芸術 / 音楽 / 脳 / fMRI / 音楽情報処理 / 機械学習

Outline of Final Research Achievements

When people are being emotionally moved by a work of art, a specific activity is thought to occur in the brain. The present study aims to elucidate the brain activity for two types of emotional response, goosebumps and tears. Further, the aim of this study was also to analyze the musical features associated with the goosebumps and tears. The results showed that goosebumps and tears were associated with activity in the caudate nucleus and the nucleus accumbens, which are brain regions involved in reward, respectively. It was shown that from the time-frequency information of the music used in the experiment, the period of music when goosebumps and tears occur was predicted by machine learning. Although the previous studies have shown that brain activity related to the sensation of goosebumps, the present study showed that brain activity related to the sensation of goosebumps. In addition, the two type of being moved experience can be discriminated from the acoustic information.

Free Research Field

認知神経科学、感情情報学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

脳機能計測装置の内部で音楽を聴取させる実験によって、感動が生じた時の脳活動を示した。音楽によって鳥肌を伴う感動と、涙を伴う感動が生じた時間帯の脳活動を調べた結果、尾状核や側坐核と呼ばれる脳領域がそれぞれ活動すると示された。これらの領域は、食事などの報酬を得たときに活動する脳部位であるため、鳥肌や涙の感動は異なるタイプの脳への報酬であるという新たな学術的知見が得られた。また、実験に用いた音楽の情報解析から、鳥肌や涙を喚起しやすい特徴を持った音楽の時間帯を特定できることが示された。こうした技術の開発は、感動しやすい音楽の選出や製作に貢献するものと考えられ社会的意義が大きい。