The Birth of Musical Emotion

Intracranial electroencephalography was recorded in an epileptic patient when he was listening to dissonant and consonant chords and to minor and major chords. Changes in dissonance induced event-related potentials (ERPs) in the auditory areas from 200 ms onward, in the orbito-frontal cortex (500-1000 ms), and later in the amygdala and anterior cingulate gyrus (1200-1400 ms), suggesting the sequential involvement of these brain structures in implicit emotional judgment of musical dissonance. Changes in musical mode induced ERPs only in the orbito-frontal cortex (500-1000 ms), emphasizing the implication of this frontal region in emotional judgment of pleasant music.