Pleasant and unpleasant emotions induced by music: A meta-analysis of
functional neuroimaging studies
Abstract
Prior neuroimaging studies of music-evoked emotions have shown that
music listening involves the activation of cortical and subcortical
regions. However, these regions could be differentially activated by
music stimuli with different affective valence. To better understand the
neural correlates involved in the processing of pleasant and unpleasant
emotions induced by music, we conducted a quantitative activation
likelihood estimate (ALE) meta-analysis. We performed separate ALE
analyses for the overall brain activation during music listening (63
studies), for the brain activation during listening to unpleasant music
(23 studies) and for the brain activation while listening to pleasant
music (21 studies). Our results showed an activation of a range of
cortical and subcortical regions, including the amygdala, insula,
striatum, thalamus, parahippocampal gyrus, anterior cingulate gyrus and
superior temporal gyrus. Moreover, our findings showed that pleasant and
unpleasant music specifically activated different brain regions.
Particularly, unpleasant music activated the amygdala, hippocampus and
the anterior cingulate cortex, whereas pleasant music activated the
striatum, thalamus and the hippocampus. The identification of brain
networks preferentially activated during listening to pleasant and
unpleasant music provide useful clinical information for the development
of therapies in psychological disorders with emotion reactivity
problems.