Musical chords are arguably the smallest building blocks of music that retain emotional information. Major chords are generally perceived as positive- and minor chords as negative-sounding, but there has been debate concerning how early these emotional connotations may be processed. To investigate this, emotional facial stimuli and musical chord stimuli were simultaneously presented to participants, and facilitation of processing was measured via event-related potential (ERP) amplitudes. Decreased amplitudes of the P1 and N2 ERP components have been found to index the facilitation of early processing. If simultaneously presented musical chords and facial stimuli are perceived at early stages as belonging to the same emotional category, then early processing should be facilitated for these congruent pairs, and ERP amplitudes should therefore be decreased as compared to the incongruent pairs. ERPs were recorded from 30 musically naive participants as they viewed happy, sad, and neutral faces presented simultaneously with a major or minor chord. When faces and chords were presented that contained congruent emotional information (happy ajor or sad inor), processing was facilitated, as indexed by decreased N2 ERP amplitudes. This suggests that musical chords do possess emotional connotations that can be processed as early as 200ms in naive listeners. The early stages of processing that are involved suggest that major and minor chords have deeply connected emotional meanings, rather than superficially attributed ones, indicating that minor triads possess negative emotional connotations and major triads possess positive emotional connotations.

ABSTRACT College students listened to four song clips. Following each clip, the students indicated which color(s) corresponded to each of the four songs by distributing five points among eleven basic color names. Each song had previously been identified as either a “happy” or “sad” song. Each participant listened to two “happy” and two “sad” songs in random order. There was more agreement in color choice for the songs eliciting the same emotions than for songs eliciting different emotions. Brighter colors such as yellow, red, green, and blue were usually assigned to the happy songs and gray was usually assigned to the sad songs. It was concluded that music-color correspondences occur via the underlying emotion common to the two stimuli.

Abstract The Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM) is a non-verbal pictorial assessment technique that directly measures the pleasure, arousal, and dominance associated with a person's affective reaction to a wide variety of stimuli. In this experiment, we compare reports of affective experience obtained using SAM, which requires only three simple judgments, to the Semantic Differential scale devised by Mehrabian and Russell (An approach to environmental psychology, 1974) which requires 18 different ratings. Subjective reports were measured to a series of pictures that varied in both affective valence and intensity. Correlations across the two rating methods were high both for reports of experienced pleasure and felt arousal. Differences obtained in the dominance dimension of the two instruments suggest that SAM may better track the personal response to an affective stimulus. SAM is an inexpensive, easy method for quickly assessing reports of affective response in many contexts.

Abstract Many studies on the synthesis of emotional expression in music performance have focused on the effect of individual performance variables on perceived emotional quality by making a systematical variation of variables. However, most of the studies have used a predetermined small number of levels for each variable, and the selection of these levels has often been done arbitrarily. The main aim of this research work is to improve upon existing methodologies by taking a synthesis approach. In a production experiment, 20 performers were asked to manipulate values of 7 musical variables simultaneously (tempo, sound level, articulation, phrasing, register, timbre, and attack speed) for communicating 5 different emotional expressions (neutral, happy, scary, peaceful, sad) for each of 4 scores. The scores were compositions communicating four different emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, calmness). Emotional expressions and music scores were presented in combination and in random order for each performer for a total of 5 4 stimuli. The experiment allowed for a systematic investigation of the interaction between emotion of each score and intended expressed emotions by performers. A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), repeated measures, with factors emotion and score was conducted on the participants' values separately for each of the seven musical factors. There are two main results. The first one is that musical variables were manipulated in the same direction as reported in previous research on emotional expressive music performance. The second one is the identification for each of the five emotions the mean values and ranges of the five musical variables tempo, sound level, articulation, register, and instrument. These values resulted to be independent from the particular score and its emotion. The results presented in this study therefore allow for both the design and control of emotionally expressive computerized musical stimuli that are more ecologically valid than stimuli without performance variations. Copyright 漏 2011 Elsevier Srl. All rights reserved.

There are many reasons that the measurement of drivers' mental workload has great interest these days and will increasingly enjoy this status in the near future. Accidents are numerous, seemingly ineradicable, very costly, and largely attributable to the human factor. Human errors in the sense of imperfect perception, insufficient attention, and inadequate information processing are the major causes of the bulk of the accidents on the road (Smiley & Brookhuis, 1987; Treat et al., 1977). Although both low and high mental workloads are undoubtedly basic conditions for these errors, an exact relation between mental workload and accident causation is not easily established, or easily measured in practice. The measurement of drivers' mental workload offers opportunities and pitfalls, as illustrated in De Waard's model of driver performance, demands, and mental workload (De Waard, 1996). Although stability of primary measures of driving performance over time is what the drivers' goals are, the conditions are variable and sometimes strongly demanding and require effort in variable "amounts" that at times are beyond capacity. The accident proneness that follows such conditions is the (for the time being irrefutable) rationale for the measurement of drivers' mental workload. For the covering abstract see ITRD E108674.

Three alternative views regarding how Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) alters emotional reactivity have been featured in the literature: positive attenuation (reduced positive reactivity), negative potentiation (increased negative reactivity), and emotion context insensitivity (ECI; reduced positive and negative reactivity). Although empirical studies have accumulated on emotional reactivity in MDD, this report is to our knowledge the first systematic quantitative review of this topic area. In omnibus analyses of 19 laboratory studies comparing the emotional reactivity of healthy individuals to that of individuals with MDD, MDD was characterized by reduced emotional reactivity to both positively and negatively valenced stimuli, with the reduction larger for positive stimuli ( d =61.53) than for negative stimuli ( d =61.25). Results were similar when 3 major emotion response systems (self-reported experience, expressive behavior, and peripheral physiology) were analyzed individually. The ECI view of emotional reactivity in MDD is well supported by laboratory data. Implications for the understanding of emotions in MDD are discussed.

There has been considerable discussion regarding the accuracy of topographic electroencephalographic (EEG) maps for assessing local cerebral function. We performed this study to test the accuracy of EEG mapping by examining the association between electrical activity and the perfusion under each electrode as another measure of local cerebral function. EEG mapping was performed simultaneously with (H15)2O positron emission tomography (PET) scanning in 6 normal adult subjects, both at rest and during a simple motor task. EEG data were processed using 3 different montages; two EEG power measures (absolute and relative power) were examined. Relative power had much stronger associations with perfusion than did absolute power. In addition, calculating power for bipolar electrode pairs and averaging power over electrode pairs sharing a common electrode yielded stronger associations with perfusion than data from referential or single source montages. These findings indicate (1) that topographic EEG mapping can accurately reflect local brain function in a way that is comparable to other methods, and (2) that the choice of EEG measure and montage have a significant influence on the degree with which maps reflect this local activity and function.

Color is a ubiquitous perceptual stimulus that is often considered in terms of aesthetics. Here we review theoretical and empirical work that looks beyond color aesthetics to the link between color and psychological functioning in . We begin by setting a historical context for research in this area, particularly highlighting methodological issues that hampered earlier empirical work. We proceed to overview theoretical and methodological advances during the past decade and conduct a review of emerging empirical findings. Our empirical review focuses especially on color in achievement and affiliation/attraction contexts, but it also covers work on consumer as well as food and beverage evaluation and consumption. The review clearly shows that color can carry important meaning and can have an important impact on people's affect, , and . The literature remains at a nascent stage of , however, and we note that considerable work on boundary conditions, moderators, and real-world generalizability is needed before strong conceptual statements and recommendations for application are warranted. We provide suggestions for future research and conclude by emphasizing the broad promise of research in this area.

Abstract This research focuses on the relation between color and psychological functioning, specifically, that between red and performance attainment. Red is hypothesized to impair performance on achievement tasks, because red is associated with the danger of failure in achievement contexts and evokes avoidance motivation. Four experiments demonstrate that the brief perception of red prior to an important test (e.g., an IQ test) impairs performance, and this effect appears to take place outside of participants' conscious awareness. Two further experiments establish the link between red and avoidance motivation as indicated by behavioral (i.e., task choice) and psychophysiological (i.e., cortical activation) measures. The findings suggest that care must be taken in how red is used in achievement contexts and illustrate how color can act as a subtle environmental cue that has important influences on behavior. ((c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved).

Background A variety of studies have demonstrated that retinal light exposure can increase alertness at night. It is now well accepted that the circadian system is maximally sensitive to short-wavelength (blue) light and is quite insensitive to long-wavelength (red) light. Retinal exposures to blue light at night have been recently shown to impact alertness, implicating participation by the circadian system. The present experiment was conducted to look at the impact of both blue and red light at two different levels on nocturnal alertness. Visually effective but moderate levels of red light are ineffective for stimulating the circadian system. If it were shown that a moderate level of red light impacts alertness, it would have had to occur via a pathway other than through the circadian system. Methods Fourteen subjects participated in a within-subject two-night study, where each participant was exposed to four experimental lighting conditions. Each night each subject was presented a high (40 lx at the cornea) and a low (10 lx at the cornea) diffuse light exposure condition of the same spectrum (blue, ??max = 470 nm, or red, ??max = 630 nm). The presentation order of the light levels was counterbalanced across sessions for a given subject; light spectra were counterbalanced across subjects within sessions. Prior to each lighting condition, subjects remained in the dark (< 1 lx at the cornea) for 60 minutes. Electroencephalogram (EEG) measurements, electrocardiogram (ECG), psychomotor vigilance tests (PVT), self-reports of sleepiness, and saliva samples for melatonin assays were collected at the end of each dark and light periods. Results Exposures to red and to blue light resulted in increased beta and reduced alpha power relative to preceding dark conditions. Exposures to high, but not low, levels of red and of blue light significantly increased heart rate relative to the dark condition. Performance and sleepiness ratings were not strongly affected by the lighting conditions. Only the higher level of blue light resulted in a reduction in melatonin levels relative to the other lighting conditions. Conclusion These results support previous findings that alertness may be mediated by the circadian system, but it does not seem to be the only light-sensitive pathway that can affect alertness at night.

Color cues impact the chemosensory perception of foods and beverages. Evidence suggests that color exerts these effects through a link with emotion. In this study, color associations to 20 emotion terms were obtained by having 194 participants use a touch-screen display to select a matching color. The resulting color matches were displayed visually and their coordinates in the L 65 a 65 b 65 system were analyzed statistically. Matching colors were found to differ as a function of emotion, with participants’ age and sex somewhat moderating color matches. Color matches were also obtained to nine beverage-related sensory scenarios. The results indicate that consumers have pre-existing expectations regarding the appropriate color for specific flavors and types of drinks. Quantitative assessment of color-emotion associations may help clarify the cross-modal effects of color on taste and smell.

Emotion recognition of music objects is a promising and important research issues in the field of music information retrieval. Usually, music emotion recognition could be considered as a training/clas

The Experience Sampling Method was used to explore emotions to music as they naturally occurred in everyday life, with a focus on the prevalence of different musical emotions and how such emotions are related to various factors in the listener, the music, and the situation. Thirty-two college students, 20 to 31 years old, carried a palmtop that emitted a sound signal seven times per day at random intervals for 2 weeks. When signaled, participants were required to complete a questionnaire on the palmtop. Results showed that music occurred in 37% of the episodes, and in 64% of the music episodes, the participants reported that the music affected how they felt. Comparisons showed that happiness-elation and nostalgia-longing were more frequent in episodes with musical emotions, whereas anger-irritation, boredom-indifference, and anxiety-fear were more frequent in episodes with nonmusical emotions. The prevalence of specific musical emotions correlated with personality measures and also varied depending on the situation (e.g., current activity, other people present), thus highlighting the need to use representative samples of situations to obtain valid estimates of prevalence.

Ninety-eight college students were asked to indicate their emotional responses to five...

Two experiments investigated the effect of indoor lighting on cognitive performance via mood. Experiment 1 varied two lighting parameters in a factorial, between-subject design: two illuminance levels (dim; 300 lx vs bright; 1500 lx) by two colour temperatures ('warm' white; 3000K vs 'cool' white; 4000K) at high CRI (Colour Rendering Index; 95). In experiment 2 the parameters of lighting were identical to the first experiment, except for the low CRI (CRI; 55). In both experiments gender was introduced as an additional grouping factor. Results in experiment 1 showed that a colour temperature which induced the least negative mood enhanced the performance in the long-term memory and problem-solving tasks, in both genders. In experiment 2, the combination of colour temperature and illuminance that best preserved the positive mood in one gender enhanced this gender's performance in the problem-solving and free recall tasks. Thus, subjects' mood valences and their cognitive performances varied significantly with the genders' emotionally different reactions to the indoor lighting. This suggests, in practice, that the criteria for good indoor lighting may be revised, taking into account females' and males' emotional and cognitive responses as well.

Abstract The present study used pleasant and unpleasant music to evoke emotion and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine neural correlates of emotion processing. Unpleasant (permanently dissonant) music contrasted with pleasant (consonant) music showed activations of amygdala, hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, and temporal poles. These structures have previously been implicated in the emotional processing of stimuli with (negative) emotional valence; the present data show that a cerebral network comprising these structures can be activated during the perception of auditory (musical) information. Pleasant (contrasted to unpleasant) music showed activations of the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG, inferior Brodmann's area (BA) 44, BA 45, and BA 46), the anterior superior insula, the ventral striatum, Heschl's gyrus, and the Rolandic operculum. IFG activations appear to reflect processes of music-syntactic analysis and working memory operations. Activations of Rolandic opercular areas possibly reflect the activation of mirror-function mechanisms during the perception of the pleasant tunes. Rolandic operculum, anterior superior insula, and ventral striatum may form a motor-related circuitry that serves the formation of (premotor) representations for vocal sound production during the perception of pleasant auditory information. In all of the mentioned structures, except the hippocampus, activations increased over time during the presentation of the musical stimuli, indicating that the effects of emotion processing have temporal dynamics; the temporal dynamics of emotion have so far mainly been neglected in the functional imaging literature. Copyright 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

ABSTRACT Is music ubiquitous in part because it is causally linked to emotion? In this article, a comprehensive theoretical and methodological reevaluation is presented of a classical problem: The direct induction of emotion by music (M→E). The author's Prototypical Emotion-Episode Model (PEEM) is used in the conceptual critique. A close scrutiny of the major published studies, and the author's new data regarding some substantive and methodological issues in several of these, reveal weak support for the M→E model. The conclusion seems justified that music may induce low-grade basic emotions through mediators, such as dance and cognitive associations to real-world events. However, it is suggested--on the basis of the recently developed Aesthetic Trinity Theory (ATT; Kone00ni, 2005) and its further development in the present article--that being moved and aesthetic awe, often accompanied by thrills, may be the most genuine and profound music-related emotional states. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Abstract This experiment assessed the effects of a red versus a green versus a white office environment on worker productivity and mood. An equal number of males and females completed a mood questionnaire before and after proofreading in one of the three offices. It was predicted that the subjects in the red office would report more tension and possibly make more errors. However, the subjects in the red office made the fewest errors, while the subjects in the white office made the most errors. Females scored significantly better on the proofreading task, and reported more tension and less vigour than males in the experiment. Subjects who worked in the red office found the colour of their office more distracting than subjects who worked in and rated the white office. The subjects in the white office reported that they would like to work in this environment and considered this colour most appropriate for an office. The authors speculate that a sterile, white environment may not be as conducive to work as is believed.

Abstract Emotions are action dispositions--states of vigilant readiness that vary widely in reported affect, physiology, and behavior. They are driven, however, by only 2 opponent motivational systems, appetitive and aversive--subcortical circuits that mediate reactions to primary reinforcers. Using a large emotional picture library, reliable affective psychophysiologies are shown, defined by the judged valence (appetitive/pleasant or aversive/unpleasant) and arousal of picture percepts. Picture-evoked affects also modulate responses to independently presented startle probe stimuli. In other words, they potentiate startle reflexes during unpleasant pictures and inhibit them during pleasant pictures, and both effects are augmented by high picture arousal. Implications are elucidated for research in basic emotions, psychopathology, and theories of orienting and defense. Conclusions highlight both the approach's constraints and promising paths for future study.

A control system for the remote activation of electronic devices, based on alpha-wave synchronisation, must be robust over a wide range of lighting conditions. This study investigates the effect that low light levels have on the increase in amplitude of the occipital alpha-wave component of the human electro-encephalogram spectrum in response to eye closure. Measurements of the time required for the amplitude of the occipital alpha wave to increase above a predetermined threshold, upon eye closure, were taken from 21 subjects and at four illuminances, ranging from 2×10 611 lx to 2×10 615 lx. The light source used to provide these illuminances was a featureless, uniformly illuminated white paper that subtended 30° of the visual field. Statistical analysis showed that the time to exceed threshold (TTET) upon eye closure was not independent (p<0.001) of illuminance, and that the main source of this lack of independence occurred at the lowest illuminance, 2×10 615 lx. At this luminance, the median TTET value was 15.0 s. However, at 2×10 614 lx, the median value of the TTET was 4.2 s. This is a sufficiently short time for device activation, and therefore a control system based on alpha-wave synchronisation is functional at very low light levels.

Affect is a somewhat abstract concept that is frequently linked to physical metaphor. For example, good is often depicted as light (rather than dark), up (rather than down), and moving forward (rather than backward). The purpose of our studies was to examine whether the association between stimulus brightness and affect is optional or obligatory. In a series of three studies, participants categorized words as negative or positive. The valence of the words and the brightness of the letters were varied orthogonally. In Studies 1, 2, and 3, we found that categorization was inhibited when there was a mismatch between stimulus brightness (e.g., light) and word valence (e.g., negative). Studies 4 and 5 reveal boundary conditions for the effect. The studies suggest that, when making evaluations, people automatically assume that bright objects are good, whereas dark objects are bad.

61High illuminance yields longer reaction times during a sustained attention task.61High illuminance results in longer N1 latencies during a sustained attention task.61High illuminance yields lower parietal alpha activity during a sustained attention task.

The current study analyzed heart rate variability in the frequency domain to study the effect of different colors on the autonomic nervous system and emotions induced by different colors. Sixteen female volunteers were presented with four different colors on a digital screen as a visual stimulus while the lead II of ECG was recorded. For assessment of induced emotion by colors, validated Self-Assessment Manikin Test were used. Effects of colors on power spectrum of HRV were reported. The results showed that red and yellow increased power in high frequency (p<;1E-4). Also, the value of low frequency power in response to yellow and green were less than control state.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we show for the first time that levels of musical expertise stepwise modulate higher order brain functioning. This suggests that degree of training intensity drives such cerebral plasticity. Participants (non-musicians, amateurs, and expert musicians) listened to a comprehensive set of specifically composed string quartets with hierarchically manipulated endings. In particular, we implemented 2 irregularities at musical closure that differed in salience but were both within the tonality of the piece (in-key). Behavioral sensitivity scores (d') of both transgressions perfectly separated participants according to their level of musical expertise. By contrasting brain responses to harmonic transgressions against regular endings, functional brain imaging data showed compelling evidence for stepwise modulation of brain responses by both violation strength and expertise level in a fronto-temporal network hosting universal functions of working memory and attention. Additional independent testing evidenced an advantage in visual working memory for the professionals, which could be predicted by musical training intensity. The here introduced findings of brain plasticity demonstrate the progressive impact of musical training on cognitive brain functions that may manifest well beyond the field of music processing.

Electroencephalography (EEG) has been used recently in emotion recognition. However, the drawback of current EEG-based emotion recognition systems is that the correlation between EEG and emotion characteristics is not taken into account. There are the differences among EEG features, even with the same emotion state in adjacent time because EEG extracted features usually change dramatically, while emotion states vary gradually or smoothly. In addition, EEG signals are very weak and subject to contamination from many artefact signals, thus leading to an accuracy reduction of emotion recognition systems. In this paper, we study on feature smoothing on EEG-based Emotion Recognition Model to overcome those disadvantages. The proposed methodology was examined on two useful kinds of features: power spectral density (PSD) and autoregressive (AR) for two-level class and three-level class using DEAP database. Our experimental results showed that feature smoothing affects to both the feature sets, and increases the emotion recognition accuracy. The highest accuracies are 77.38 % for two-level classes and 71.75 % for three-level classes, respectively in valence space.

This study was designed to explore the roles that long- and short-wavelength lights have on momentary mood and alertness at night. Twenty-two subjects participated in a mixed-design experiment, where we measured the impact of two levels of long- and short-wavelength lights on brain activity and on self-assessments of alertness, sleepiness and mood. Measurements were obtained 60 minutes prior to, during and after light exposure. Results showed that the red and the blue lights increased electroencephalographic beta power (12鈥30 Hz), reduced sleepiness, and increased positive affect relative to the previous dim-light period indicating that alertness and mood can be affected by light without necessarily stimulating the melatonin pathway. The impact of light was modest, however, compared to the increase in fatigue over the course of the night.

Abstract In a sham-controlled design (n = 12), slow repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) was applied to the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex for 20 min, and the subsequent effects on mood and the EEG spectrum were investigated, Analysis revealed a significant left hemisphere increase in EEG theta activity at 25-35 and 55-65 min after stimulation. In addition, participants reported significant decrease in anxiety immediately after stimulation, as well as 35 and 65 min after rTMS. These findings indicate that reductions in anxiety after slow rTMS at the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex are associated with a contralateral increase in theta activity.

In retail design, the use of color and light are important design techniques which aim to attract customers and increase market opportunities. The objectives of this study were to examine the effects of color and lighting on impression and identity of a bank sub-branch in Thailand. In this study, 144 research participants evaluated six computer-generated scenes with different color hues, lighting arrangements and correlated color temperatures using a semantic differential scaling method. The results show that different color and lighting conditions significantly affect both the impression of space and perception of retail identity. The results indicate that bank sub-branch space with chromatic conditions, especially space with warm color tone and colored-light, received a higher positive score of impression and identity. To fully understand the effect of color and lighting on space perception and retail identity, this study suggests that other color properties should be examined.

Three experiments were conducted in order to validate 56 musical excerpts that conveyed four intended emotions (happiness, sadness, threat and peacefulness). In Experiment 1, the musical clips were rated in terms of how clearly the intended emotion was portrayed, and for valence and arousal. In Experiment 2, a gating paradigm was used to evaluate the course for emotion recognition. In Experiment 3, a dissimilarity judgement task and multidimensional scaling analysis were used to probe emotional content with no emotional labels. The results showed that emotions are easily recognised and discriminated on the basis of valence and arousal and with relative immediacy. Happy and sad excerpts were identified after the presentation of fewer than three musical events. With no labelling, emotion discrimination remained highly accurate and could be mapped on energetic and tense dimensions. The present study provides suitable musical material for research on emotions.Keywords.

目的 探讨羽调音乐对恐惧情绪的缓解作用.方法 招募72名大学生通过观看恐怖影片片断诱发恐惧情绪,后听音乐或休息,分别比较两者的生理指标、主观体验指标间的差异.结果 当被试产生恐惧情绪后,与安静休息相比[分别为(0.96±1.64)1/Ω,(0.85±1.73)min-1,(4.48±43.54)μV, (-5±15.37)min-1],听羽调音乐引起皮肤电阻、呼吸频率、肌电、心率[分别为(2.04±2.22)1/Ω, (0.09±1.79)min-1,(8.47±26.24) μV,(1.57±20.88)min-1]更大的下降,差异有显著性 ( P <0.01,P <0.01,P <0.01,P <0.05).当被试产生恐惧情绪后,与安静休息相比[分别为(-0.37±2.71)μV,(0.13±1.16)℃],听羽调音乐引起血容波 幅、指温[分别为(-0.53±3.8)μV,(-0.02±0.87)℃]更大的上升,差异无显著性( P ＞0.05,P ＞0.05).结论 听羽调音乐相比安静休息更能促进恐惧情绪的恢复,降低交感神经系统的兴奋性,提高副交感神经的功能,且提升个体愉快和平静等正性情绪体验和认知.

SummaryMoods are known to be changed by color. In order to observe the activity of the brain with the color stimulus, the event-related potential (ERP) and electroencephalogram (EEG) images are used to be analyzed. The ERP and EEG of alpha brainwave could be considered whether the person is under relaxation. In the other hand, the beta brainwave means the people represent arousal. In this paper, based on experiment data, we analyze the brain responses which come from color stimuli. The result gives us a measure to estimate the color stimulus.Key words:color stimulus, alpha brainwave, beta brainwave, event-related potential (ERP), electroencephalogram (EEG)