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      A Statistical Analysis of the Relationship between Harmonic Surprise and Preference in Popular Music

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          Abstract

          Studies have shown that some musical pieces may preferentially activate reward centers in the brain. Less is known, however, about the structural aspects of music that are associated with this activation. Based on the music cognition literature, we propose two hypotheses for why some musical pieces are preferred over others. The first, the Absolute-Surprise Hypothesis, states that unexpected events in music directly lead to pleasure. The second, the Contrastive-Surprise Hypothesis, proposes that the juxtaposition of unexpected events and subsequent expected events leads to an overall rewarding response. We tested these hypotheses within the framework of information theory, using the measure of “surprise.” This information-theoretic variable mathematically describes how improbable an event is given a known distribution. We performed a statistical investigation of surprise in the harmonic structure of songs within a representative corpus of Western popular music, namely, the McGill Billboard Project corpus. We found that chords of songs in the top quartile of the Billboard chart showed greater average surprise than those in the bottom quartile. We also found that the different sections within top-quartile songs varied more in their average surprise than the sections within bottom-quartile songs. The results of this study are consistent with both the Absolute- and Contrastive-Surprise Hypotheses. Although these hypotheses seem contradictory to one another, we cannot yet discard the possibility that both absolute and contrastive types of surprise play roles in the enjoyment of popular music. We call this possibility the Hybrid-Surprise Hypothesis. The results of this statistical investigation have implications for both music cognition and the human neural mechanisms of esthetic judgments.

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          Most cited references39

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          Relations between the statistics of natural images and the response properties of cortical cells

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            Emotional responses to pleasant and unpleasant music correlate with activity in paralimbic brain regions.

            Neural correlates of the often-powerful emotional responses to music are poorly understood. Here we used positron emission tomography to examine cerebral blood flow (CBF) changes related to affective responses to music. Ten volunteers were scanned while listening to six versions of a novel musical passage varying systematically in degree of dissonance. Reciprocal CBF covariations were observed in several distinct paralimbic and neocortical regions as a function of dissonance and of perceived pleasantness/unpleasantness. The findings suggest that music may recruit neural mechanisms similar to those previously associated with pleasant/unpleasant emotional states, but different from those underlying other components of music perception, and other emotions such as fear.
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              Interactions between the nucleus accumbens and auditory cortices predict music reward value.

              We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate neural processes when music gains reward value the first time it is heard. The degree of activity in the mesolimbic striatal regions, especially the nucleus accumbens, during music listening was the best predictor of the amount listeners were willing to spend on previously unheard music in an auction paradigm. Importantly, the auditory cortices, amygdala, and ventromedial prefrontal regions showed increased activity during listening conditions requiring valuation, but did not predict reward value, which was instead predicted by increasing functional connectivity of these regions with the nucleus accumbens as the reward value increased. Thus, aesthetic rewards arise from the interaction between mesolimbic reward circuitry and cortical networks involved in perceptual analysis and valuation.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Front Hum Neurosci
                Front Hum Neurosci
                Front. Hum. Neurosci.
                Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
                Frontiers Media S.A.
                1662-5161
                18 May 2017
                2017
                : 11
                : 263
                Affiliations
                [1] 1Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience, Georgetown University Washington, DC, United States
                [2] 2Department of Neuroscience, Georgetown University Washington, DC, United States
                [3] 3Applied Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Drexel University Philadelphia, PA, United States
                [4] 4Department of Physics, Georgetown University Washington, DC, United States
                [5] 5Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Georgetown University Washington, DC, United States
                Author notes

                Edited by: Klaus Gramann, Technische Universität Berlin, Germany

                Reviewed by: David Huron, Ohio State University at Columbus, United States; Peter Michael Combes Harrison, Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom

                *Correspondence: Norberto M. Grzywacz norberto@ 123456georgetown.edu
                Article
                10.3389/fnhum.2017.00263
                5435755
                28572763
                7537a372-8b14-4544-ad6c-7ce74aa7fe4d
                Copyright © 2017 Miles, Rosen and Grzywacz.

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

                History
                : 23 November 2016
                : 02 May 2017
                Page count
                Figures: 9, Tables: 0, Equations: 17, References: 45, Pages: 13, Words: 9231
                Funding
                Funded by: National Science Foundation 10.13039/100000001
                Categories
                Neuroscience
                Original Research

                Neurosciences
                music cognition,music preference,information theory,expectation violation,neuroaesthetics,music perception,popular music

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