Brain and Cognition 76 (2011) 146–157

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Brain and Cognition

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Emotions induced by operatic music: Psychophysiological effects of music, plot,and actingA scientist’s tribute to Maria Callas

Felicia Rodica Baltes�, Julia Avram, Mircea Miclea, Andrei C. Miu ⇑Emotion and Cognition Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, CJ 400015, Romania

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Accepted 31 January 2011Available online 8 April 2011

Keywords:Operatic musicMusic-induced emotionsPhysiological differentiation of emotions

0278-2626/$ - see front matter � 2011 Elsevier Inc. Adoi:10.1016/j.bandc.2011.01.012

Abbreviations: DBP, diastolic blood pressure; ECGeneva Emotional Music Scale; HF-HRV, power in theHR, heart rate; HRV, heart rate variability; IBI, cardiacpower in the low frequency band of HRV; NA, negatiPANAS, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule; RR, respsinus arrhythmia; SAM, Self-Assessment Manikin; SBPskin conductance level; SEM, standard error of the mvery low frequency band of HRV.⇑ Corresponding author. Address: 37 Republici

Romania. Fax: +40 264 590967.E-mail address: andreimiu@gmail.com (A.C. Miu).

a b s t r a c t

Operatic music involves both singing and acting (as well as rich audiovisual background arising from theorchestra and elaborate scenery and costumes) that multiply the mechanisms by which emotions areinduced in listeners. The present study investigated the effects of music, plot, and acting performanceon emotions induced by opera. There were three experimental conditions: (1) participants listened toa musically complex and dramatically coherent excerpt from Tosca; (2) they read a summary of the plotand listened to the same musical excerpt again; and (3) they re-listened to music while they watched thesubtitled film of this acting performance. In addition, a control condition was included, in which an inde-pendent sample of participants succesively listened three times to the same musical excerpt. We mea-sured subjective changes using both dimensional, and specific music-induced emotion questionnaires.Cardiovascular, electrodermal, and respiratory responses were also recorded, and the participants kepttrack of their musical chills. Music listening alone elicited positive emotion and autonomic arousal, seenin faster heart rate, but slower respiration rate and reduced skin conductance. Knowing the (sad) plotwhile listening to the music a second time reduced positive emotions (peacefulness, joyful activation),and increased negative ones (sadness), while high autonomic arousal was maintained. Watching the act-ing performance increased emotional arousal and changed its valence again (from less positive/sad totranscendent), in the context of continued high autonomic arousal. The repeated exposure to musicdid not by itself induce this pattern of modifications. These results indicate that the multiple musicaland dramatic means involved in operatic performance specifically contribute to the genesis of music-induced emotions and their physiological correlates.

� 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

‘‘Maria Callas exploded the concept of what beautiful singingmeans: Is it pretty sounds and pure tones? Or should beautyevolve from text, musical shape, dramatic intent and, especially,emotional truth?’’

(Anthony Tommassini in ‘‘A Voice and a Legend That Still Fasci-nate; Callas Is What Opera Should Be’’, The New York Times, Sep-tember 15, 1997)

ll rights reserved.

G, electrocardiogram; GEMS,high frequency band of HRV;interbeat intervals; LF-HRV,

ve affect; PA, positive affect;iratory rate; RSA, respiratory

, systolic blood pressure; SCL,ean; VLF-HRV, power in the

i, Cluj-Napoca, CJ 400015,

1. Introduction

We are often emotionally moved by musical performances.However, emotions induced by music have only recently drawnthe attention of scholars in cognitive and affective sciences (Juslin& Vastfjall, 2008; Scherer & Zentner, 2001). Field studies haveconfirmed that music pervades everyday life and some of its mostimportant functions are related to mood change and emotion reg-ulation (DeNora, 1999; Juslin, Liljestrom, Vastfjall, Barradas, &Silva, 2008; Sloboda & O’Neil, 2001). In daily life, music generallyincreases positive affect, alertness, and focus in the present(Sloboda, O’Neil, & Ivaldi, 2001). In addition, it provides opportuni-ties for venting strong emotions, increasing their intensity, orcalming down (DeNora, 1999). Therefore, music has been relatedto the genesis and control of emotions.

Despite previous debates on whether music induces emotions inlisteners (i.e., the so-called ‘‘emotivist’’ position), or only expresses

F.R. Baltes� et al. / Brain and Cognition 76 (2011) 146–157 147

emotions that listeners can recognize (i.e., the ‘‘cognitivist’’position) (Kivy, 1990; Scherer & Zentner, 2001), the recent litera-ture has generally supported the former view that music inducessubjective (e.g., self-reported sadness), behavioral (e.g., crying),and physiological changes (e.g., heart rate [HR – see list of acro-nyms] deceleration) that are characteristic of emotions (Bharucha,Curtis, & Paroo, 2006; Juslin & Vastfjall, 2008; Koelsch, 2005;Scherer & Zentner, 2001). In addition, the mechanisms by whichmusic induces emotions (e.g., semantic associations, emotionalcontagion based on observation of facial and vocal expressions;see Bezdek & Gerrig, 2008; Hietanen, Surakka, & Linnankoski,1998; Lundqvist & Dimberg, 1995) may not be specific to music,but this possibility has only recently started to be investigated(for reviews, see Juslin & Vastfjall, 2008; Scherer & Zentner,2001). The present report stems from the emotivist approach,and will examine the effects of opera on listeners’ physiological re-sponses and subjective ratings of their own emotions.

One way to investigate these issues has been to identify physi-ological responses during music listening (e.g., Krumhansl, 1997;Nyklícek, Thayer, & Van Doornen, 1997). This approach has ex-tended the studies on the physiological differentiation of emotionsinduced by facial expressions (e.g., Ekman, Levenson, & Friesen,1983), images (e.g., Codispoti, Bradley, & Lang, 2001), and even nat-ural sounds (e.g., Bradley & Lang, 2000). Previous studies indicatedthat only certain emotions (e.g., fear, disgust) can be distinguishedbased on their autonomic signatures (for review see Levenson,1992), but the effect sizes were small or medium at best (Cacioppo,Berntsen, Klein, & Poehlmann, 1997). These findings are not sur-prising considering the limited emotional saliency of images andwords presented in laboratory settings. Recent psychophysiologi-cal studies have used more complex stimuli such as films, and con-sequently induced more robust experiences of emotion andphysiological responses (e.g., Frazier, Strauss, & Steinhauer, 2004;Kreibig, Wilhelm, Roth, & Gross, 2007).

1.1. Psychophysiology of music-induced emotions

Like films, music has been shown to produce physiologicalchanges that can distinguish between emotions. In two landmarkstudies, Krumhansl (1997), and Nyklícek et al. (1997) measured alarge array of cardiovascular, respiratory, and electrodermal re-sponses in association with self-report measures of emotions in-duced by music. Emotions were differentiated based on certainphysiological responses such as respiratory sinus arrhythmia(RSA) and cardiac interbeat intervals (IBI) (Nyklícek et al., 1997).For instance, sadness ratings correlated positively with IBI, systolic(SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and negatively with skinconductance level (SCL) (Khalfa, Peretz, Blondin, & Manon, 2002;Krumhansl, 1997). Emotional arousal was best explained by phys-iological changes, which accounted for 62.5% of the variance(Nyklícek et al., 1997). There is only one psychophysiological fieldstudy that measured emotional ratings, electrodermal and respira-tory responses in a sample of spectators (i.e., 27 listeners) duringseveral live performances of Wagner’s operas given in the festivaltheater of Bayreuth in 1987–1988 (Vaitl, Vehrs, & Sternagel,1993)1. In contrast to laboratory studies, these limited field resultssuggested that physiological responses differed between opera leit-motivs, but there was a weak correspondence between physiologicaland subjective measures of emotions.

Psychophysiological studies have thus focused on the coherencebetween subjective, behavioral, and physiological components ofmusic-induced emotions. Lundqvist, Carlsson, and Juslin (2009) re-

1 A recent laboratory study on psychophysiological changes induced by opera cameto our attention while this article was under review. See Bernardi et al. (2009).

ported an association between music-induced happiness andgreater SCL, and supported the emotivist position. In contrast, an-other study found that increased emotional arousal occurred with-out changes in SCL (Grewe, Nagel, Kopiez, & Altenmuller, 2007a).The latter pattern of results was interpreted as evidence for thecognitivist position, although the participants were clearly in-structed to rate the emotional arousal they felt, and not that ex-pressed by the music. These apparently divergent results mightbe explained by methodological differences, considering that onestudy used a self-report instrument that measured changes in sev-eral basic emotions (Lundqvist et al., 2009), and the other mea-sured changes in arousal and valence across emotions (Greweet al., 2007a). In addition, there are emotions specifically inducedby music that are not captured by basic emotion measures suchas the one used by Lundqvist et al. (2009).

1.2. Specific music-induced emotions

It has been argued that aesthetic emotions are deeper and moresignificant (Sloboda, 1992), nuanced and subtle (Scherer & Zentner,2001) than other more general emotions. Indeed, the range of mu-sic-induced emotions goes beyond the emotions captured by thebasic emotion models. A recent field study showed that a nine-fac-tor model best fitted the emotion descriptors that were chosen bymusic listeners who attended a classical music festival (Zentner,Grandjean, & Scherer, 2008). It included emotion categories (e.g.,wonder, transcendence) that are not part of any current model ofemotion. The Geneva Emotional Music Scale (GEMS) is the firstquestionnaire designed to measure music-induced emotions(Zentner et al., 2008). To our knowledge, no study has investigatedthe correlation between physiological responses and music-in-duced emotions measured by GEMS.

1.3. Music-induced chills

Music-induced emotions are often accompanied by physicalsensations such as chills (i.e., tremor or tingling sensations passingthrough the body as the result of sudden keen emotion or excite-ment). Two landmark studies indicated that the great majority ofpeople were susceptible to chills (Sloboda, 1991), and these bodilyphenomena were associated with music-induced emotions, espe-cially sadness and melancholy (Panksepp, 1995). Musical eventssuch as crescendos or a solo instrument (e.g., a soprano’s voice)emerging from a softer orchestral background induced chills(Grewe, Nagel, Kopiez, & Altenmuller, 2007b; Panksepp, 1995).Psychophysiological studies have shown that music-induced chillscorrelated with increases in SCL and HR (Grewe et al., 2007b;Rickard, 2004). The present study aims to integrate the measure-ment of chills, music-induced emotions reflected by GEMS, and awider range of physiological changes.

1.4. The duration of musical stimuli

One important aspect that differentiates studies of music-in-duced emotions is the duration of stimuli. For instance, many stud-ies used short (i.e., several seconds), monotonic musical stimuli. Ithas been suggested that even less than one second of music is suf-ficient to prime an emotional meaning (e.g., Bigand, Vieillard,Madurell, Marozeau, & Dacquet, 2005; Peretz, Blood, Penhune, &Zatorre, 2001; Watt & Ash, 1998). However, this approach has atleast two limitations. First, it usually involves forced-choice re-sponses that increase the difficulty of emotional valence process-ing (Bigand et al., 2005; Peretz et al., 2001). Second, the correctcategorization of the emotional content of music may only reflectthe emotions that listeners perceive in music. One second maynot be enough time to develop an emotional response. At any rate,

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longer durations of musical stimuli increase the magnitude ofpsychophysiological responses in music-induced emotions (Witvli-et & Vrana, 2007). Psychophysiological studies generally used long-er stimuli (i.e., ranging from 6 to 600 s), and it has been argued thatthe use of full music pieces has greater external validity wheninvestigating emotional responses to music (Grewe et al., 2007a;Nater, Abbruzzese, Krebs, & Ehlert, 2006; Rickard, 2004).

1.5. Multiple sources of emotion in operatic music

The duration of musical stimuli, as well as the integration ofmusic with congruent visual and verbal cues are important con-tributors to emotional responses that people develop to musicalperformance (Bezdek & Gerrig, 2008; Scherer & Zentner, 2001).Operatic music performance involves both singing and acting,which multiplies the mechanisms by which emotions are inducedin listeners. Opera adds the power of the dramatic plot and the per-sonality of the performer to the affective message of the musicalscore and the emotional expressivity of voice (Scherer, 1995).The rich audiovisual background arising from the orchestra andelaborate scenery and costumes are also important. The objectiveof the present study was to investigate for the first time the cumu-lative contributions of music listening, learning the context of theevents it portrays (i.e., plot), and watching the acting performanceto emotions induced by opera.

These sources may support the genesis of emotion either inde-pendently or in concert. Research on film music supports the latterpossibility. For instance, music presented during the opening sceneof a film influenced the emotional valence of words that partici-pants used in their continuations of the narratives (Vitouch,2001). In addition, judgments of characters displaying neutralemotions were significantly affected by the emotional content ofthe music that accompanied the film (Tan, Spackman, & Bezdek,2007). Lyrics are also important in emotional responses to music.For instance, the emotional effects of music and lyrics were inves-tigated by combining musical excerpts with lyrics that conveyedthe same emotion or another emotion (Ali & Peynircioglu, 2006;Stratton & Zalanowski, 1994). These studies indicated that lyricsenhanced emotion in sad and angry music. Furthermore, theseemotions readily transferred to images that were arbitrarily asso-ciated with songs (Ali & Peynircioglu, 2006). In addition, visualcues such as facial expressions are preattentively integrated withvocal cues and influence the emotional judgment of the latter (deGelder, Bocker, Tuomainen, Hensen, & Vroomen, 1999). Therefore,it seems likely that facial expressions of singers influence the emo-tional processing of music. Overall, music, lyrics, and visual cuesseem to significantly contribute to the genesis of music-inducedemotions, and their concerted contribution may explain why oper-atic music is so effective in inducing emotions. However, this com-plex issue has not been investigated to date.

1.6. Objectives of the present study

We investigated subjective and physiological emotional re-sponses to operatic music. In order to maximize external validity,we chose a dramatically coherent and musically complex excerptfrom Tosca by Giacomo Puccini. The soprano Maria Callas and thebaritone Tito Gobbi gave a legendary interpretation of the maincharacters in Tosca, and their 1964 live performance at Covent Gar-den was fortunately recorded on film. In this performance, both ar-tists impress by their emotional identification with the characters,and the way they deliver the mixture of lust and hate, fear, emo-tional vulnerability and indignation through their voice (Huck,1984). Studying the psychophysiology of emotion during this per-formance offers us an opportunity to catch a scientific glimpse ofthe emotional force that artists such as Maria Callas have inspired.

The present study had three experimental conditions thatinvestigated the contributions of music, plot, and acting perfor-mance to emotional responses. First, participants listened to themusical excerpt. Then, they read a summary of the plot and lis-tened to the same musical excerpt again. In the third condition,they re-listened to music while they watched the subtitled filmof this acting performance. In between conditions, we measuredmusic-induced emotions using both dimensional, and specific mu-sic-induced emotion questionnaires. During the experimental con-ditions, cardiovascular, electrodermal and respiratory responseswere continuously recorded, and the participants kept track oftheir musical chills.

Since there are very few psychophysiological studies of emo-tions in operatic music (and operatic music is so diverse), the pres-ent study was consequently exploratory. Based on the musical anddramatic content of this musical excerpt, we expected that itwould induce a pattern of emotions characterized by increasedunpleasant emotions (e.g., sadness) and decreased pleasant emo-tions (e.g., joyful activation, peacefulness). In addition, based onthe literature in related areas (e.g., sadness induced by films), weexpected a change in the sympathovagal balance, with vagal with-drawal and sympathetic activation, as well as decreases of SCL andrespiratory rate (RR). We were specifically interested in the wayeach successive layer of complexity influenced music-inducedemotions and their physiological correlates.

2. Methods

2.1. Participants

N = 37 healthy, right-handed Romanian volunteers (25 women;mean age = 21.4 years, ranging between 19 and 24 years), withgood hearing, were selected for this study (out of an initial poolof 45 volunteers). The sample size was determined by using a pri-ori statistical power analysis (power = 0.95; alpha = 0.05; effectsize f = 0.25) run in the G-Power 3.1 software (Faul, Erdfelder, Lang,& Buchner, 2007). The participants had no significant musical edu-cation, but they reported that music was an important part of theirlives. None of the participants reported having listened to Tosca be-fore, a preference for classic or operatic music, or understood Ital-ian. These inclusion criteria were important in order to control forthe degree of familiarity with the selected musical piece, andunderstanding of the lyrics. None of the participants reported car-diovascular or neurological problems, or any kind of medical treat-ment that would interfere with cardiovascular and autonomicfunctions. Participants were asked to refrain from alcohol, caffeineand smoking at least four hours before the experiment. All the par-ticipants signed an informed consent to participate to the experi-ment and the procedures complied with the recommendations ofthe Declaration of Helsinki for human studies.

2.2. Materials

We used an excerpt from Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca (Act II), filmedat Covent Garden in 1964, starring Maria Callas as Floria Tosca, TitoGobbi as Scarpia, and Renato Cioni as Mario Cavaradossi (Zeffirelli,2002). We selected and juxtaposed two excerpts (i.e., excerpt 1 from110:0000 [Scarpia: Ed or fra noi parliam da buoni amici] to 220:3100 [Scar-pia: Io? Voi!], and excerpt 2 from 230:3600 [Tosca: Quanto?] to 310:3500

[Tosca: Perché me ne rimuneri cosi?]) for the following reasons. First,these excerpts contain the plot (see Supplementary materials)involving all the three main characters (i.e., Tosca, Scarpia, and Cav-aradossi). Second, these excerpts are musically and dramaticallyheterogenous, with a variety of rhythmical dynamics, ascendingand descending scales, large vocal range and emotional tension. In

F.R. Baltes� et al. / Brain and Cognition 76 (2011) 146–157 149

addition, our approach to inducing music-related emotions explic-itly relied on using longer excerpts (e.g., 190:3000 in the present study)from popular operatic compositions in order to credibly replicate themusical context that induces emotions in the real world (Greweet al., 2007a; Juslin & Vastfjall, 2008; Rickard, 2004). Music was pre-sented using Technics RP-F600 high-quality noise canceling closedheadphones. Before the start of the experiment, a test tone wasplayed, giving participants the opportunity to adjust the loudnessto an individually comfortable level. After the participants read theplot before the second experimental condition, the experimenterschecked how well the plot was understood by asking the partici-pants the following questions: (1) who are the main characters; (2)what happens in this opera; and (3) what happens in this excerptof the opera? The great majority of the participants answered cor-rectly to these questions, but those who omitted or were not sureof certain details were allowed to read the summary of the plot againand assisted with supplementary explanations by the experiment-ers. This experimental condition started only after each participantcorrectly answered all the questions regarding the plot. The videowas displayed on a Samsung SyncMaster 205BW monitor(50.8 cm), located 1.5 m in front of the participant’s chair. The exper-imental room was small and dimly lit, and was maintained at a com-fortable ambient temperature.

2.3. Procedure

There were three conditions of musical experience: (1) musiclistening; (2) music re-listening after learning the plot; and (3) mu-sic re-listening while watching the acting performance. Previousstudies revealed that the psychophysiological responses inducedby music are not significantly affected by repeated exposure(Grewe et al., 2007a, 2007b). However, we also included a controlcondition in which an independent sample of N = 9 participants(five women) successively listened three times to the same musicalexcerpt, in order to check whether the repeated exposure to musicinfluenced the subjective and physiological measures. The samequestionnaires and physiological recordings were used in the mainexperiment and the supplementary control condition, except SBPand DBP that were not measured in the latter condition. The partic-ipants in this control experiment met all the inclusion criteria thatapplied to the main experiment.

At the arrival to the laboratory, each participant completed thegeneral scales of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS-I) (Watson & Clark, 1994), in order to control for differences inaffective mood before the start of the experiment. After a habitua-tion period during which participants were explained that severalnon-invasive recordings will be taken during music listening, thephysiological electrodes for SCL and electrocardiogram (ECG), aswell as the respiration transducer and an arm cuff coupled to anautomatic blood pressure monitor were attached. Participantswere instructed to sit comfortably and relax, and carefully listento the music while monitoring the music-related emotions theyfelt without trying to control them in any way. They were in-structed to identify emotions they felt during music listening,and not emotions that the music expressed. They were also re-quested to keep a count on a scratch sheet of the number of chillsthey experienced during each condition.

Each condition was preceded by a 5 min interval during whichbaseline physiological recordings were made. Participants com-pleted each condition and unless they wanted a break, they movedonto the following condition. First, they listened to the musical ex-cerpt. In the second condition, they were given a summary of theplot (see Supplementary materials). Using a brief questionnaire,the experimenters first made sure that participants understoodthe plot and knew the characters, and then music was playedagain. In the third condition, the participants listened to music

while also watching the acting performance. In order to facilitatethe complete understanding of the plot and acting performance,the movie was subtitled in Romanian.

After each condition, participants were required to rate theemotional arousal (1 – non-arousing to 5 – arousing) and valence(1 – unpleasant to 5 – pleasant) induced by music; and completedGEMS (Zentner et al., 2008) for music-induced emotions.

2.4. Self-report measures

The positive (PA) and negative affect (NA) scales of PANAS-I(Watson & Clark, 1994) include 20 items each, which measurethe affective mood in the past few weeks until present. Emotionalarousal and valence were measured using the Self-AssessmentManikin (SAM) (Bradley & Lang, 1994). SAM is a non-verbal picto-rial assessment technique that directly measures the pleasure andarousal (as well as dominance, which was not used in the presentstudy) associated with a person’s affective reaction to a wide vari-ety of stimuli. For the measurement of emotions induced by music(e.g., wonder, transcendence, tenderness, peacefulness), we usedthe long (i.e., 45 items) variant of GEMS (Zentner et al., 2008).GEMS scores are grouped on nine factors: wonder; transcendence;tenderness; nostalgia; peacefulness; power; joyful activation; ten-sion; and sadness. Whereas the dimensional rating allowed us todocument general changes of emotional arousal and valence, GEMSoffered us the possibility of actually identifying the specific emo-tions that were induced by each experimental condition. Self-re-ports of chills were also collected.

2.5. Physiological measures

ECG, SCL, and respiration were continuously recorded duringthe baseline and experimental conditions, using a BIOPAC MP150system and specific electrodes and transducers. Blood pressurewas intermittently measured at fixed intervals during the experi-mental condition.

2.5.1. Cardiovascular measuresECG was recorded using disposable pregelled Ag/AgCl electrodes

placed in a modified lead II configuration, at a sample rate of 500samples/s, and amplified using an ECG100C module. After visualinspection of the recordings and editing to exclude artifacts inAcqKnowledge 3.9.0.17, all the recordings were analyzed using Nev-rokard 7.0.1 (Intellectual Services, Ljubljana, Slovenia). We calcu-lated HR, and HR variability (HRV) indices in the time andfrequency domains: mean IBI between successive R waves (HR andIBI are negatively correlated); power in the high frequency(HF-HRV) band (�0.15–0.4 Hz in adults) of HRV, also known asRSA; power in the low (LF-HRV) (�0.05–0.15 Hz), and very lowfrequency (VLF-HRV) (�0–0.05 Hz) bands of HRV, as well as LF/HFratios. The latter three measures, obtained by spectral analysis, arereported in normalized units (see Task Force Report, 1996). RSAreflects vagal modulation of the heart, whereas LF-HRV reflects acomplex interplay between sympathetic and vagal influences (seeEckberg, 1997; Kingwell et al., 1994; Miu, Heilman, & Miclea,2009; Task Force of the European Society of Cardiology and Electro-physiology, 1996). These measures were derived from each baselineand experimental conditions. The statistical analyses of RSA in-cluded respiration frequency as covariate in order to control forthe influence of respiration on this measure. Therefore, the resultsreported here controlled for the influence of respiration on RSA.

2.5.2. Skin conductanceAfter cleaning and abrading the skin of the palms, TSD203

electrodermal response electrodes filled with isotonic gel were at-tached to the volar surfaces of the index and medius fingers. SCL

Fig. 1. Changes in emotional arousal and valence (SAM) induced by music listening(1), learning the plot (2), and watching the acting performance (3).

150 F.R. Baltes� et al. / Brain and Cognition 76 (2011) 146–157

recordings were amplified using a GSR100C module. We estimatedSCL by extracting the area under the curve (lS/s) from each base-line and experimental condition, after the downdrift in the SCLwaves was eliminated using the ‘‘difference’’ function of Acq-Knowledge, as described in (Bechara, Damasio, Damasio, & Lee,1999; Miu, Heilman, & Houser, 2008).

2.5.3. RespirationOne channel of respiration was measured using a top respira-

tion band placed on the chest, below the breast. The data were re-corded with the RSP100C module and the TSD201 Transducer ofthe Biopac system. TSD201 can arbitrarily measure slow to veryfast thoracic and abdominal respiration patterns with no loss insignal amplitude, optimal linearity and minimal hystheresis. RR(in cycles per minute) was calculated breath by breath using Acq-Knowledge software.

2.5.4. Blood pressureSBP and DBP (in millimeters of mercury) were measured inter-

mittently with an automatic blood pressure monitor (Digital BloodPressure monitor, Vital System) through an arm cuff at the partic-ipant’s right upper arm. Inflation was initiated at the end of thebaseline, at minutes 5, 10, 15, and at the end of the musicalcondition.

2.6. Data reduction

For the continous physiological measurements (i.e., all exceptSBP and DBP), we calculated difference scores by subtracting eachbaseline measure (i.e., the quiet sitting period immediately preced-ing each musical experience condition) from the correspondingexperimental condition measure (see Kreibig et al., 2007). In thecase of SBP and DBP that were intermittently measured, we firstcalculated the arithmetic mean of the physiological data frombaseline and experimental conditions, and then derived the samedifference score. The raw scores were transformed to T scores fornormalization.

2.7. Statistical analysis

Data were inspected for outliers (Stevens, 2002, pp. 14–17) –only 0.8% of the data were excluded. We used repeated measureANOVA and ANCOVA, followed by post hoc tests, in order to deter-mine whether there were differences in emotion experience andphysiological responses between the musical experience condi-tions. Effect sizes for t-tests and AN/COVA are reported as Cohen’sd and g2

p , and interpreted as follows: d = 0.2 or g2p = 0.01 – small ef-

fect size; d = 0.5 or g2p = 0.059 – medium effect size; and d = 0.8 or

g2p = 0.138 – large effect size (Cohen, 1988). We also used the Fried-

mann non-parametric test to analyze potential differences be-tween the frequency of chills in the experimental conditions. Inaddition, correlation analyses allowed us to test the association be-tween emotion experience, physiological responses, and chills.Simple regressions were used to test whether affective mood(i.e., PA and NA) predicted affect (i.e., dimensional and specificemotion ratings) and physiological responses. The data are re-ported in the graphs as means ± one standard error of the means(SEM).

3. Results

3.1. General affect

A 3 (musical experience: music listening vs. learning the plot vs.watching the acting performance) � 2 (sex: women vs. men)

ANCOVA indicated that musical experience had a significant maineffect on self-reported emotional arousal (F[4, 32] = 6.19, p = 0.002,g2

p = 0.12). NA and PA were included as covariates in these analysesin order to control for the affective mood of participants before theexperiments.

The analyses of the data from the supplementary control sam-ple indicated that the repeated exposure to music had no signifi-cant effects on emotional arousal and valence (p = 0.3 for both)(see Supplementary Fig. 1). In addition, we compared the first mu-sic listening condition in the control experiment to the music lis-tening condition from the main experiment, in order to verifytheir similarity. Indeed, there were no significant differences be-tween the arousal (t[45] = 1.29, ns) and valence scores(t[45] = 1.23, ns) in the first conditions of the main and controlexperiments, respectively.

Although emotional arousal and valence were not measured be-fore the first condition because it would have been hard to find anequally complex, but emotionally neutral stimulus to which tocompare the first experimental condition, we explored the affectiveexperience that music listening induced by one sample Student t-tests. The expected mean was the mid-value of the SAM ratingscale. These analyses indicated that music listening was associatedwith increased emotional arousal (t[35] = 2.42, p = 0.02, Cohen’sd = 0.3) and valence scores (t[35] = 8.57, p < 0.0001, Cohen’s d =1). Next, by comparing between the three experimental condition,we found that watching the acting performance significantly in-creased emotional arousal compared to learning the plot, and musiclistening (see Fig. 1). Neither the main effect of sex, nor the interac-tion of sex �musical experience on emotional arousal and valencewere statistically significant.

3.2. Music-induced emotions

The effects of musical experience and sex on music-inducedemotions measured by GEMS were also investigated. A 3 (musicalexperience: music listening vs. learning the plot vs. watching theacting performance) � 2 (sex: women vs. men) ANCOVA indicatedthat musical experience induced specific emotions. NA and PAwere again included as covariates in these analyses.

The analyses of the data from the supplementary control sam-ple indicated that the repeated exposure to music had no signifi-cant effects on any of the GEMS measures (p > 0.1 for all) (see

Fig. 2. Changes in GEMS scores induced by music listening (1), learning the plot (2),and watching the acting performance (3).

F.R. Baltes� et al. / Brain and Cognition 76 (2011) 146–157 151

Supplementary Fig. 2). We also compared the pattern of GEMSscores between the first conditions of the main and control exper-iments. There was only one significant difference on tenderness(t[45] = 2.25, p = 0.02), with higher scores in the music listeningcondition of the main experiment.

By comparing between the three experimental condition, wefound that learning the plot and watching the acting performancehad significant effects on distinct music-induced emotions (seeFig. 2). On the one hand, learning the plot reduced the scores ofpeacefulness (F[4, 32] = 7.84, p = 0.0009, g2

p = 0.23) and joyful acti-vation (F[4, 32] = 5.85, p = 0.004, g2

p = 0.17), and increased sadness(F[4, 32] = 10.98, p = 0.0001, g2

p = 0.32). On the other hand, watch-ing the acting performance increased the scores of wonder(F[4, 32] = 8.13, p = 0.0007, g2

p = 0.23) and transcendence(F[4, 32] = 4.02, p = 0.02, g2

p = 0.11). Neither the main effect of sex,nor the interaction of sex �musical experience on specific emo-tions were statistically significant.

3.3. Physiological responses

The analyses of the data from the supplementary control sam-ple indicated that the repeated exposure to music had no signifi-cant effects on any of the physiological measures (p > 0.39 for all)(see Supplementary Fig. 3). However, a couple of physiologicalmeasures were significantly different between the first conditionsof the main and control experiments: IBI (t[45] = 4.77, p < 0.0001)and RR (t[45] = 2.09, p = 0.04), with lower values in the first condi-tion of the control experiment.

There were significant main effects of musical experience onphysiological responses. In comparison to baseline measures, mu-sic listening (i.e., the first condition) significantly decreased RR(F[4, 32] = 9.12, p = 0.005, g2

p = 0.29), IBI (F[4, 32] = 3.11, p = 0.02,g2

p = 0.09), and SCL (F[4, 32] = 29.76, p < 0.0001, g2p = 0.75). In the

following experimental conditions, both learning the plot, andwatching the acting performance specifically influenced physiolog-ical measures (Fig. 3). On the one hand, learning the plot signifi-cantly decreased RSA (F[4, 32] = 3.05, p = 0.05, g2

p = 0.08) andincreased LF-HRV (F[4, 32] = 3.49, p = 0.03, g2

p = 0.09) and LF/HF(F[4, 32] = 3.77, p = 0.02, g2

p = 0.1) in comparison to music listening.On the other hand, watching the acting performance significantly

decreased IBI (F[4, 32] = 2.98, p = 0.05, g2p = 0.08), and SCL

(F[4, 32] = 3.2, p = 0.04, g2p = 0.09) in comparison to music listening.

3.4. Experienced chills

The repeated exposure of the independent control sample tomusic had no significant effect on self-reported chills (p = 0.3).There were no differences between the frequency of chills in thecontrol and main experiments, respectively.

A Friedman non-parametric test compared between the threeexperimental conditions in the main experiment and indicatedthat the exposure to the acting performance significantly increasedthe number of reported chills (v2 = 8.92, p = 0.01) in comparison tolearning the plot and music listening.

3.5. Relationships between music-induced affect, chills, andphysiological responses

We analyzed the correlations between emotions, chills, andphysiological responses within each musical experience condition.The following paragraph reports the main patterns of correlationsfor which we had a priori hypotheses (for detailed results, seeTables 1–3). These analyses indicated that LF-HRV positively, andRSA negatively correlated with emotional arousal after learningthe plot. In the same condition, the frequency of chills also corre-lated with arousal. In contrast, RR positively correlated with emo-tional valence (i.e., increased RR for positive valence) during musiclistening.

The analyses of music-induced emotions showed that LF-HRVpositively, and RSA negatively correlated with the level of wonder,power, and joyful activation after learning the plot. Also, LF-HRVpositively and RSA negatively correlated with the frequency ofchills both after learning the plot, and while watching the actingperformance. Chills consistently correlated positively with the lev-els of wonder and transcendence in all three musical experienceconditions. We also checked if this correlation was replicated inthe control experiment and we confirmed that chills correlated sig-nificantly with wonder (r = 0.65, p = 0.05) and marginally withtranscendence (r = 0.6, p = 0.08). Another consistent pattern of po-sitive correlations was that between RR, wonder (during all threemusical experience conditions), and transcendence (during musiclistening, and watching the acting performance).

3.6. Previous mood and music-induced affect

PA and NA significantly correlated (r = �0.45, p < 0.01), but thelow correlation allowed us to use both as predictors (i.e., negligiblemulticollinearity). Our hypotheses were that NA would positivelypredict unpleasant emotions measured by GEMS (i.e., nostalgia,sadness, tension), and negatively predict pleasant emotions (i.e.,wonder, transcendence, power, tenderness, peacefulness, joyfulactivation). We also expected that PA would negatively predictunpleasant emotions and positively predict pleasant emotions. Inaddition, based on the work of Panksepp (1995), we also hypothe-sized that NA would negatively predict chills and RSA. On theassumption that only the first condition (i.e., music listening)would be directly affected by previous mood, regression analyseswere run on music-induced emotions and chills recorded duringthe first condition. The results indicated that power (R = 0.53,p = 0.0009, g2

p = 0.28) and joyful activation (R = 0.45, p = 0.05,g2

p = 0.21) were negatively predicted by NA. In contrast, PA posi-tively predicted power (R = 0.51, p < 0.001, g2

p = 0.26) and joyfulactivation (R = 0.38, p = 0.02, g2

p = 0.15).

Fig. 3. Changes in interbeat intervals (IBI), heart rate (HR), power in the very low frequency (VLF), and low frequency (LF) bands of heart rate variability, respiratory sinusarrhythmia (RSA), sympathovagal balance (LF/HF), skin conductance level (SCL), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and respiratory rate (RR)induced by music listening (1), learning the plot (2), and watching the acting performance (3).

152 F.R. Baltes� et al. / Brain and Cognition 76 (2011) 146–157

4. Discussion

The results of this study confirmed that music listening, learn-ing the plot, and watching the acting performance had specific ef-fects on emotional responses measured at the subjective andphysiological levels.

4.1. Effects of music, plot and acting

In comparison to expected mean scores, music listening in-creased, as one would expect, emotional arousal and valence. Inaddition, music listening decreased RR, IBI and SCL, in comparisonto baseline physiology. These results seem to extend previousobservations that sad music is associated with decreased SCL,and sadness induced by music is well discriminated by respiratorychanges (Krumhansl, 1997; Nyklícek et al., 1997). Moreover, ourobservation of decreased SCL associated with this music excerptis also in line with studies that induced sadness by directed facialaction tasks (Ekman et al., 1983; Levenson, 1992).

It may seem that the pattern of reduced RR and SCL, and in-creased HR (i.e., decreased IBI) in the music listening condition iscontradictory. Early observations indicated that the minor tonali-ties of music increased HR (Hyde & Scalapino, 1918), whereasthe tempo of music influenced RR (Diserens, 1920). Bernardi andcolleagues (2009) have recently reported that music crescendosor emphases (e.g., in Nessun dorma from Puccini’s Turandot) in-duced skin vasoconstriction along with increases in blood pres-sures and HR. There was also increased breath depth duringmusic crescendos, but these modulations of respiratory powerwere independent of cardiovascular modulations. The presentstudy also shows that music listening independently modulatedRR and HR, and the former correlated with negative valence, won-der and transcendence. Also in line with the present results, Naka-hara, Furuya, Francis, & Kinoshita, (2010) found that playing Bach’sNo. 1 Prelude with emotional expression increased HR and de-creased RR in pianists, in comparison to playing the same piece

without emotional expression. Therefore, these studies suggestthat music-induced emotions can independently modulate cardio-vascular and respiratory activities, and this pattern of physiologicalchanges may contribute to the receptiveness or arousal to music(Bernardi et al., 2009; the present study) and the capacity ofperformers to incorporate expressiveness in their performance(Nakahara, Furuya, Francis, & Kinoshita, 2010).

Our control analyses on the data from an independent sampleindicated that re-listening to the musical excerpt for three timesdid not increase emotional arousal and valence, or induced addi-tional physiological changes by itself. Whereas there were no dif-ferences between the conditions of the control experiment,which argued that repeated music listening alone did not affectedthe subjective and physiological measurements, the relevance ofthe physiological measurements from the control experiment islimited. There were differences in IBI and RR between the sampleused in the main and control experiments, respectively. This wasprobably due to the reduced sample size in the control experiment(N = 9, in comparison to N = 37 in the main experiment). Overall,the control data supported the view that the changes observed inthe main experiment were not due to repeated music listeningalone, although this inference should be taken with caution in re-gard to some of the physiological results. Replicating the controlfindings with a sample size that is similar to that of the mainexperiment would be necessary in order to unequivocally confirmthat the repeated music listening alone does not change physiolog-ical activity.

Learning the plot before listening to the musical excerpt thesecond time (in the main experiment) induced a pattern of emo-tional changes that included reduced peacefulness, joyful activa-tion, and increased sadness. At the physiological level, learningthe plot decreased RSA and increased LF-HRV. The change in RSAreflects vagal suppression that has been associated with negativeemotional states and traits, such as anxiety and depression (Bleil,Gianaros, Jennings, Flory, & Manuck, 2008; Miu et al., 2009). Thesummary of the plot that the participants read before they

Tabl

e1

Corr

elat

ions

betw

een

phys

iolo

gica

lre

spon

ses,

chill

s,an

daf

fect

duri

ngm

usic

liste

ning

.

Self

-Ass

essm

ent

Man

ikin

Gen

eva

Emot

ion

alM

usi

cSc

ale

Ch

ills

Aro

usa

lV

alen

ceW

onde

rTr

ansc

ende

nce

Pow

erTe

nde

rnes

sN

osta

lgia

Peac

efu

lnes

sJo

yfu

lac

tiva

tion

Sadn

ess

Ten

sion

Syst

olic

bloo

dpr

essu

re(S

BP)

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230.

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36*

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0.13

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150.

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F.R. Baltes� et al. / Brain and Cognition 76 (2011) 146–157 153

re-listened to the musical excerpt described negative emotionalevents (e.g., Scarpia tortures Cavaradossi and harasses Tosca; seeSupplementary materials). Therefore, we argue that the sadness in-duced by learning the plot triggered vagal suppression that wasneither explained by concomitant respiratory changes (i.e., RRwas controlled for in the analyses of RSA), nor by re-listening tothe musical excerpt by itself. The increase in LF-HRV suggests thatlearning the plot also facilitated sympathetic activity. However, LFprobably reflects a complex interplay between sympathetic andvagal influences on the heart (Eckberg, 1997; Miu et al., 2009), sothe effect of learning the plot on sympathetic activity should be ta-ken with caution. Overall, learning the plot significantly influencedmusic-induced emotions and changed sympathovagal balance inthe direction of greater preparedness for action.

Watching the acting performance increased emotional arousaland valence (SAM) compared to the first two experimental condi-tions. Furthermore, it increased wonder and transcendence(GEMS). Notably, wonder and transcendence are emotions thatare specifically induced by music (Zentner et al., 2008). In compar-ison to music listening and learning the plot, watching the actingperformance added social-emotional and visuospatial cues to themusical experience: facial expressions, gestures and postures,translated lines, and scenery. These factors probably contributedto the semantic processing of music and vocal expressions, andwe argue that this experimental condition best approximated thefull musical experience of listeners attending a live opera perfor-mance. Watching the acting performance decreased IBI and SCLin comparison to music listening. Previous studies reported thatmusic-induced sadness ratings correlated positively with IBI andnegatively with SCL (Krumhansl, 1997; Nyklícek et al., 1997). Inaddition, watching the acting performance was also related to sig-nificantly more music-induced chills. Another recent study showedthat music-induced chills correlated with increased SCL and HR(Guhn, Hamm, & Zentner, 2007). The apparent divergence betweenthese previous results and the present findings of increased won-der and transcendence associated with decreased IBI and SCL,and increased music-induced chills may be explained by differ-ences in experimental design and measures. First, previous studiesused short excerpts from classical orchestral music, whereas we fo-cused on opera. Second, the previous studies investigated musiclistening alone, whereas our observations are based on a conditionthat involved music listening while watching the acting perfor-mance. Third, their conclusions are based on comparisons betweenmusic expressing negative and positive emotions, identified usingbasic emotions questionnaires. In the present experiment, watch-ing the acting performance induced wonder and transcendencemeasured using GEMS. Overall, our results show for the first timethat watching the acting performance contributes to music-in-duced wonder and transcendence that are associated with de-creased IBI and SCL, and increased chills.

In summary, both music listening (compared to baseline), andwatching the acting performance (compared to music listening)decreased IBI and SCL. As shown in Fig. 3, IBI followed the samedecreasing trend, whereas SCL remained at the same level afterlearning the plot compared to music listening. This means thatlearning the plot did not significantly influence these physiologicalvariables, but they nonetheless remained at the level induced bymusic listening (i.e., they did not return to baseline). Therefore,music listening decreased RR, IBI, and SCL, learning the plot hadno effect on these measures, and watching the acting performancesignificantly decreased IBI and SCL again. This indicates that IBI andSCL are the main physiological variables that are influenced by mu-sic listening and watching the acting performance. The only vari-ables that were specifically influenced by learning the plot wereRSA and LF-HRV, which indicates that they are sensitive to theaddition of meaning in this context.

Tabl

e2

Corr

elat

ions

betw

een

phys

iolo

gica

lre

spon

ses,

chill

s,an

daf

fect

duri

ngm

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ning

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usa

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alen

ceW

onde

rTr

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ende

nce

Pow

erTe

nde

rnes

sN

osta

lgia

Peac

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lnes

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tion

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154 F.R. Baltes� et al. / Brain and Cognition 76 (2011) 146–157

4.2. Coherence between subjective and physiological changes

There has been an active emotivist vs. cognitivist debate be-tween scholars who argue that music listeners really experienceemotions, or only identify emotions that music expresses (Kivy,1990; Scherer & Zentner, 2001). This study integrated subjectiveand physiological measures of emotional responses, thus addingto the developing literature on the psychophysiology of music. Inthis line, a novel and important contribution of the present studyis that we correlated music-induced emotions measured with a do-main-specific instrument (i.e., GEMS), with an extensive array ofemotion-related physiological changes. For instance, we found thatmusic-induced wonder positively correlated with RR and chillsacross conditions. Moreover, by comparing the correlations of sub-jective and physiological changes between the three experimentalconditions, one would observe that the psychophysiological coher-ence increases the most after learning the plot. This might suggestthat the addition of meaning may be more closely related to thecoherence between subjective and physiological changes inducedby music, than the provision of additional sensory information(e.g., watching the acting performance).

4.3. Affective mood and sex

The present findings that affective mood predicted emotions in-duced by music listening (e.g., power, joyful activation) suggeststhat future studies of music-induced emotions should control forthis potential confound. Specifically, NA negatively predicted, andPA positively predicted power and joyful activation induced bymusic listening. This argues for the role of affective mood in thegenesis of music-induced emotions, which is also in line with otherstudies (see Kreutz, Ott, Teichmann, Osawa, & Vaitl, 2008). In a re-cent field study (F.R. Baltes, M. Miclea, & A.C. Miu, unpublishedobservations), we have confirmed and extended the relationshipbetween the affective mood that the participants reported beforethe beginning of a live opera performance, and the music-inducedsadness and transcendence (GEMS). This indicates that the influ-ence of affective mood is not limited to wonder and transcendence.However, the specificity of this association in relation to the musi-cal stimuli, and the physical setting (i.e., laboratory vs. field stud-ies) might be investigated by future studies.

We also controlled for sex differences in the present analyses. Aprevious study showed that in comparison to men, women ratedthe chill-producing songs as being sadder (Panksepp, 1995). An-other study reported that women showed elevated SCL to heavymetal compared to Renaissance music (Nater et al., 2006). In lightof these results, the present study tested the effects of sex, and theinteraction of sex and musical experience. We expected that afterlearning the plot, and especially during watching the acting perfor-mance, women would be more reactive due to increased emotionalempathy with the female character in the musical excerpt. How-ever, we found no significant main effect, or interaction of sex withmusical experience, on subjective or physiological responses.

4.4. Potential limitations and implications

One potential limit is that the mere repeated exposure mayhave influenced the present pattern of results. However, thispossibility was controlled by measuring the same subjective andphysiological responses while an independent control samplere-listened to the same musical excerpt for three times. The resultsfrom this sample indicated that the emotional arousal and valence,the music-induced emotions, or the physiological measures did notchange with mere re-listening. This is also in line with the studiesof Grewe et al. (2007a, 2007b). However, we acknowledge that areal limitation of the present study comes from the small size of

Tabl

e3

Corr

elat

ions

betw

een

phys

iolo

gica

lre

spon

ses,

chill

s,an

daf

fect

duri

ngm

usic

liste

ning

whi

lew

atch

ing

the

acti

ngpe

rfor

man

ce.

Self

-Ass

essm

ent

Man

ikin

Gen

eva

Emot

ion

alM

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cSc

ale

Ch

ills

Aro

usa

lV

alen

ceW

onde

rTr

ansc

ende

nce

Pow

erTe

nde

rnes

sN

osta

lgia

Peac

efu

lnes

sJo

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lac

tiva

tion

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ess

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sion

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olic

bloo

dpr

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re(S

BP)

0.17

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180.

150.

39*

0.09

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F.R. Baltes� et al. / Brain and Cognition 76 (2011) 146–157 155

the control sample in comparison to the sample from the mainexperiment.

In light of the previous literature, musical expertise and (not)understanding the original language performance are also unlikelyto have confounded our results. For instance, Bigand et al. (2005)showed that the classification of musical excerpts according tothe emotional content did not differ between music graduatesand nonmusicians. Another study found that emotional responsesare not affected by song translation of non-native original languageperformance (Chiaschi, 2007), such as we did in our third experi-mental condition. It is also unlikely that listening to music witheyes open influenced music-induced emotions in the present study(Kallinen, 2004). However, future studies might control for person-ality variables (e.g., absorption) that are known to affect emotionalarousal induced by music (Kreutz et al., 2008).

These results have theoretical and methodological implications.First, they contribute to the literature supporting the emotivist po-sition in the psychology of music. Second, they also add evidence infavor of the physiological differentiation of emotions. Third, con-sidering that psychophysiological measures tended to correlatemore highly with GEMS scores, and wonder and transcendenceplayed a particularly prominent role, the present results emphasizethe utility of domain-specific instruments to assess music-inducedemotions. Fourth, many previous studies have paid a high price forexperimental control, by using sound clips lasting a few secondsand crude measures of emotion (Peretz et al., 2001; Vieillardet al., 2008). Although these studies contributed to the understand-ing of the minimal conditions that are necessary to express anemotional meaning, it remains often unclear whether findingsfrom such studies have any bearing on the experience of musicin real life. Consequently, we chose to use a 19 min excerpt fromTosca, edited to contain a coherent plot, in order to realisticallysimulate the real life conditions in which opera induces emotions.The rich and complex pattern of psychophysiological results in thepresent study underscores the importance of external validity inlaboratory studies of music-induced emotions.

Each experimental condition in the present study manipulatedan additional variable in relation to the previous conditions (i.e.,the plot for the second condition, and the visual context for thethird condition). The rationale behind this type of within-subjectdesign is that any change that develops in one condition relativeto the previous one is determined by the additional variable thatwas manipulated in that condition. However, it is possible thatrather than being specifically induced by each new variable thatwas manipulated in a certain experimental condition, the changescould be due to simply increasing the sensory and semantic com-plexity of the musical experience. For instance, the visual contextthat was added in the third experimental condition might haveclarified the meaning of the music, or allowed increased depth ofprocessing in relation to the first two conditions. Other studieshave used similar approaches by juxtaposing music and images,or lyrics and music, and claimed that emotional changes were spe-cifically induced by the variable that differed between conditions(e.g., Ali & Peynircioglu, 2006).

One may wonder whether this pattern of findings might gener-alize to all opera, or is unique to this style of operatic music perfor-mance (i.e., pertaining to verismo), composer, composition, excerpt,or interpretation. Scherer and Zentner (2001) have emphasizedthat music-induced emotions depend on several factors, such asstructural features of music (i.e., pitch, melody, tempo, rhythm,harmony), performance features (e.g., physical appearance, expres-sion, reputation, technical and interpretative skills of the per-former), listener features (e.g., musical expertise, personality,affective mood), and contextual features (e.g., location of theperformance, social framing of the event). The present studyinvestigated the influence of affective mood, and controlled for

156 F.R. Baltes� et al. / Brain and Cognition 76 (2011) 146–157

important listener features (i.e., musical expertise, familiarity withthe selected musical piece, preference for classic or operatic mu-sic). In addition, all the participants listened to the music in thesame physical setting (i.e., our laboratory). This argues for the gen-erality of our findings. It was beyond the purpose of this study toinvestigate the influence of musical structure, and performancefeatures. It is likely that the stellar performance of Maria Callasand Tito Gobbi in this Tosca performance increased the effective-ness of this excerpt in inducing emotions. However, we speculatethat the pattern of emotions reported here would not have beendifferent had we used another interpretation of this opera by ar-tists that are vocally and dramatically comparable (or at leastclose) to Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi. Future studies might investi-gate whether these findings can be replicated with excerpts fromother operas.

4.5. Conclusion

In conclusion, this study found that music listening, learning theplot, and watching the acting performance had specific effects onmusic-induced emotions and their physiological correlates. Operaposes enormous challenges to research due to the multitude ofmusical and dramatic means by which it induces emotions.Although the present study only scratched the surface, it opensnew perspectives for future studies on the mechanisms of music-induced emotions in opera.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Dr. Laurel J. Trainor and two anonymousreviewers for important suggestions that helped us in improvingthe present article, and Dr. Marcel Zentner for permission to usethe Geneva Emotional Music Scale (GEMS-45) in the study. We alsothank Silviu Matu for help with data collection. This research wassupported by the 2010 Arnold Bentley Award from the Society forEducation, Music, and Psychology (SEMPRE) to R.F.B. and A.C.M.,and grant 411/2010 from the National University Research Councilto A.C.M.

Appendix A. Supplementary material

Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, inthe online version, at doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2011.01.012.

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