Music, Passion, and Cognitive Function

By Leonid Perlovsky

Music, Passion, and Cognitive Function examines contemporary cognitive theories of music, why they cannot explain music’s power over us, and the origin and evolution of music. The book presents experimental confirmations of the theory in psychological and neuroimaging research, discussing the parallel evolution of consciousness, musical styles, and cultures since Homer and King David.

In addition, it explains that 'in much wisdom is much grief' due to cognitive dissonances created by language that splits the inner world. Music enables us to survive in this sea of grief, overcomes discomforts and stresses of acquiring new knowledge, and unifies the soul, hence the power of music.

• Provides a foundation of music theory
• Demonstrates how emotions motivate interaction between cognition and language
• Covers differentiation and synthesis in consciousness
• Compares the parallel evolution of music and cultures
• Examines the idea of music overcoming cognitive dissonances

• Language: English
• Publisher: Academic Press
• Release date: Feb 25, 2017
• ISBN: 9780128096963

Leonid Perlovsky

Dr. Leonid Perlovsky is Professor at Northeastern University Psychology Department and jointly at Engineering Department, also CEO LP Information Technology, past Visiting Scholar at Harvard Medical School Athinoula Martinos Brain Imaging Center, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Technical Advisor and Principal Research Scientist at the AF Research Lab. Together with colleagues around the world he creates a new area of science Physics of the Mind that turns psychology into "hard science". Physics of the mind has explained wide areas of psychology not previously understood including conscious and unconscious, has predicted unexpected psychological phenomena many of which have been experimentally proven in most prestigious labs around the world; experimental tests and theoretical aspects of physics of the mind open a wide area for future research. Among revolutionary successes of physics of the mind are cognitive-mathematical modeling of several fundamental psychological areas that have resisted mathematical modeling for decades, including perception and cognition, neural mechanisms of abstract concepts, interaction of cognition and language (unresolved since Chomsky), cognitive functions of aesthetic emotions (misunderstood since Kant), cognitive functions of emotions of the beautiful, mechanisms of the high meaning, interactions between beautiful and meaning, cognitive functions of musical emotions, and the reasons why music affects us so much - what Darwin called the greatest mystery. Dr. Perlovsky has created a mathematical foundation for physics of the mind, a new area of cognitive mathematics, dynamic logic, which overcomes computational complexity preventing mathematical modeling of the mind since the 1960s. He served as Chief Scientist at Nichols Research, a $500mm high-tech DOD contractor, as professor at Novosibirsk University and New York University; as a principal in commercial startups. His company predicted 9/11 market crash a week before the event and supported the SEC investigation. He is invited as a keynote plenary speaker and tutorial lecturer worldwide, including most prestigious venues such as the Nobel Forum at Karolinska Institutet; authored more than 500 publications. He organizes international conferences and serves on the Boards of professional societies. "Music: Passions and Cognitive Functions" is his most recent book. He has founded and serves as Editor-in-Chief for “Physics of Life Reviews,” the IF=9.5, ranked #3 in the world among 84 journals in biophysics. He received prestigious awards including the INNS Gabor Award, and the John McLucas Award, the highest US Air Force Award for basic research. In 2016 he has been appointed Professor at St Petersburg Peter the Great Polytechnic University.

Book preview

Music, Passion, and Cognitive Function

Leonid Perlovsky

Northeastern University, Boston, MA, United States

Table of Contents

Cover image

Title page

Copyright

Biography

Acknowledgments

Epigraph

Introduction

Chapter 1. Theories of Music

Abstract

Music Is a Mystery

Theories of Musical Emotions and Music Origins

2500 Years of Western Music and Prescientific Theories (From Pythagoras to the 18th Century)

Chapter 2. Mechanisms of the Mind: From Instincts to Beauty

Abstract

Concepts, Instincts, Emotions, and Behavior

The Knowledge Instinct and Aesthetic Emotions

The Hierarchy of the Mind and the Emotions of the Beautiful

Chapter 3. Language and Wholeness of Psyche

Abstract

The Dual Hierarchy of Cognition and Language

Differentiation and Synthesis

Chapter 4. Music

Abstract

Differentiated Knowledge Instinct

Cognitive Dissonances and Musical Emotions

Chapter 5. Experimental Tests of the Theory: Music

Abstract

The Fox and the Grapes With Music

Do Students Suffer During Tests and Could Music Help?

Consonant and Dissonant Music Versus Cognitive Interference

Music and Academic Performance

Discussion

Conclusion

Can Experiments Confirm a Theory? Physics of the Mind

Chapter 6. Experimental Tests of the Theory: Beauty and Meaning

Abstract

Aesthetic Chills

Results (Shortened)

Discussion

Conclusion

Chapter 7. Music and Culture: Parallel Evolution

Abstract

Empirical Evidence in History

Role of Music in Cultural Evolution From King David to Know Thyself

Music and Consciousness in Ancient Greece

Tonal Organization Since 250,000 BCE

Synthesis and Differentiation During Early Christianity and Middle Ages

Individuation: The Renaissance, Reformation, and Bach

Classicism and Rationality

Split Soul: Romanticism

Consciousness and Music in the 20th Century

Consciousness, Music, and Culture

Chapter 8. Musical Emotions and Personality

Abstract

A Controversy in Perception of Musical Emotion

Personality Types and Emotion Perception

Love at First Sight, Divorce, and Choice of Profession

Music and Emotions

Number of Emotions

Conclusion

Chapter 9. Other Aesthetic Emotions

Abstract

Kantian Aesthetics

Musical Emotions

Emotions of Cognitive Dissonances

Emotions of Prosody and Cultures

Aesthetics of Poetry, Literature, and Visual Perception

Chapter 10. Future Research and Summary

Abstract

Aesthetic Emotions

Summary

Literature

Index

Copyright

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Biography

Dr. Leonid Perlovsky is professor at Northeastern University Psychology Department and CEO LP Information Technology; past Visiting Scholar at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, at Harvard Medical School Athinoula Martinos Brain Imaging Center; and Technical Advisor and Principal Research Scientist at the AF Research Lab. He has created a new area of cognitive mathematics, dynamic logic, which models the mind processes. He served as Chief Scientist at Nichols Research, a $500-mm high-tech company; as professor at Novosibirsk University and New York University; and as a principal in commercial start-ups developing tools for text understanding, biotechnology, and financial predictions. His company predicted 9/11 market crash a week before the event and supported the SEC investigation. He is invited as a keynote plenary speaker and tutorial lecturer worldwide, including most prestigious venues such as the Nobel Forum at Karolinska Institutet; published more than 500 papers, 20 book chapters, and 7 books with Oxford, Springer, and Frontiers; and awarded 2 patents. Dr. Perlovsky has founded and serves as Editor-in-Chief for Physics of Life Reviews the IF=9.5, ranked 3 in the world among biophysical journals. He received prestigious awards including the INNS Gabor Award and the John McLucas Award, the highest US Air Force Award for basic research.

Acknowledgments

This book summarizes breakthrough results in several areas of science. Accomplishing this will not be possible without the help of many colleagues and coauthors. It is my pleasure to acknowledge the contributions of M. Aranovsky, M. Bar, L. Barsalou, M. Bonfeld, R. Brockett, M. Cabanac, A. Cangelosi, T. Chernigovskaya, R. Deming, T. Dudochkin, F. Fontanari, M. Frank-Kamenetskii, J. Gleason, A. Goldwag, D. Huron, R. Ilin, N. Katonova, M. Karpovsky, R. Kozma, L. Leibman, D. Levine, D. Levitin, L. Levitin, T. Lyons, A. Nikolsky, N. Masataka, M. Mazo, Y. Neuman, A. Ovsich, A. Patel, V. Rosenbaum, F. Schoeller, J. Sloboda, D. Sontag, W. Thompson, Y. Vinkovetsky, and B. Weijers for discussions, help, and advice. Development of the ideas in the foundation of this book were supported in part by AFOSR PM Dr. Jon Sjogren, PM Dr. Doug Cochran, and PM Dr. Jun Zhang. Especial acknowledgments are due to Y. Dimitrin who has inspired me to think about the role of musical emotions in human cognition and to D. Vinkovetsky who inspires me to think profoundly.

Epigraph

Art exists so that the bow (of tension between material and spiritual) shall not break.

Nietzsche

A poet’s duty is to try to mend

The edges split between the soul and body

The talent’s needle. And only voice is thread.

Joseph Brodsky

Introduction

Music is an enigma. We spend so much time listening to music. The United States exports more music than guns and cars. Why? Explanations range from bonding of military regiments to dissipating tensions. But these are not explanations at all; they just pass the buck to military or psychological uses of music. They do not explain music’s ability to touch our souls (what today we call psyche and study in psychology). Anybody who loves music, whether it be Bach or Gregorian chant, The Beatles or Lady Gaga, knows that his or her own love for music cannot be explained by any utilitarian reason. Steven Pinker suggested that music is auditory cheesecake. He as well as other experts on music, mind, and evolution could not find any biological or evolutionary reason for music. Even Kant, who explained the emotions of the beautiful by relating it to knowledge, could not explain music: it merely plays with senses, which today is also repeated by Pinker.

So, we are at square one. Why is music so important for us? How is it that rhythms and melodies, just mere sounds, remind states of soul? Is it possible to comprehend the nature of musical perception? I briefly review theories of musical harmony, from Pythagoras to Helmholtz, and show that, while useful for making musical instruments, they do not explain the mystery of music. The mysterious power of music, the content of this book, can only be understood from its relations to the basic mechanisms of the mind: I discuss concepts, emotions, and the knowledge instinct (KI). Music plays a complicated dual role in the workings of the mind. On the one hand, it is perceived by evolutionary-old neural emotional centers connected to ancient instincts. These are mechanisms of the synthetic power of music. On the other hand, music is perceived by evolutionary-new brain center, where music creates new varying and differentiated emotions. These differentiated emotions are required by the KI: for the emotional evaluation of every concept in its multifaceted relationships to our knowledge as a whole. This is the dual role of music: it differentiates emotions and creates synthesis, wholeness in human psyche. Musical sounds engage the human being as a whole—such is the nature of ancient, fuzzy, undifferentiated emotions of the mind. Music at once differentiates emotions and creates wholeness.

In this process of creating wholeness music overcomes cognitive dissonances, unpleasant emotions related to contradictions in cognition. People do not like contradictions and avoid them as much as possible, even at the cost of discarding new knowledge. The first description of discarding knowledge to avoid cognitive dissonance was given 2600 years ago by Aesop. In his fable, The Fox and the Grape, the fox experiences what we call today a cognitive dissonance: the fox sees hanging a beautiful ripe grape, but which is just a little bit too high to reach. The fox cannot get the grape but can avoid suffering from cognitive dissonance; the fox decides the grape is sour. In the 20th century hundreds of psychological experiments have been used to demonstrate that if I cannot get it, then I do not need it as a typical human behavior. And yet humans can overcome cognitive dissonances; otherwise, language, cognition, and culture would not evolve, as every piece of new knowledge contradicts previous knowledge.

This book discusses a revolutionary theory of evolution and the function of music: music helps us to overcome cognitive dissonances, and in this way makes possible the continuous evolution of culture. Furthermore, this theory explains why music has such a power over our souls: knowledge causes grief because every piece of cognition causes cognitive dissonances, we live in this ocean of grief, and music helps us to overcome these negative emotions and to continue living. Is it an exaggeration to call this theory revolutionary? Certainly, conservatories and music schools do not teach anything like this.

There is a fascinating story that empirically supports the theory. The story is about the joint evolution of music and consciousness since the time of King David. This story explains why a particular type of music emerged around the time of Nehemiah, and subsequently entered Christianity. It traces the changes in music and consciousness through Antiquity, the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Reformation, Classicism, Romanticism, the 20th century, fascism, communism, and today. Music through all of this diverse history is related to the interplay of two factors that make up the KI. The evolution of consciousness moves along a razor’s edge between differentiation and synthesis: striven to know all of life’s details while simultaneously striven to bring unity and meaning to life. Swinging to the side of differentiation, concepts can lose their meaning and purpose; swinging to the side of synthesis, strong emotions can nail down language and thinking to traditional values. At the extreme, both can lead to a cultural slow down. Differentiation is the essence of cultural advancement, but it leads to a breakdown in synthesis. In turn, creative potential is lost and civilization disintegrates. Creative momentum requires a balance between differentiation and synthesis. In the last 2000 years in Western culture the balance has been supported by the evolution of music.

I relate this scientific account to the Nietzschean analysis of the role of music in ancient Greece. Then, I follow cycles of differentiation and synthesis in Western consciousness and music: from early Christian synthesis in psalmody and antiphon, to Medieval differentiation of consciousness and polyphony, to the humanism of the Renaissance and the development of tonality, and to individuation in the Reformation and the fugues of Bach. Why is it that some have called Bach the highest peak in the evolution of music, and yet the evolution of musical styles continues? KI and the evolution of consciousness give us a new point of view on this question. I connect rational consciousness to classical music, romantic consciousness to split between the conceptual and the emotional, and I explore the connections between contemporary consciousness and the music revolutions of the 20th century.

High forms of music create synthesis of the most important concept-representations touching the meaning of human existence. Popular songs, through the interaction of words and sounds, connect the usual words of everyday life with the depths of the unconscious. This is why in contemporary culture, with its tremendous number of differentiated concepts and lack of meaning, such an important role is taken by popular songs. I discuss Rap as a contemporary Dionysian dithyramb, which connects (today, like 3000 years ago) the split edges between the emotional and the conceptual, between soul and body. And I ponder, what is ahead?

I discuss the confirmation of this theory in laboratory experiments. One experiment follows Aesop’s fable, but with a slight twist: with music playing in the background knowledge is not discounted. Another experiment demonstrates that during exams music helps students to not avoid cognitive dissonances and to allocate more time to more stressful questions and get better grades. Other researches show that students taking musical classes receive higher grades in all subjects.

The last chapter discusses a new field of study, including the question of measuring musical emotions and their number, and a vast open field for theoretical and experimental exploration.

To summarize, cognitive functions of music, its origins, evolution, and why music has such sway over our souls have been considered a mystery by Aristotle, Darwin, and by contemporary evolutionary musicologists. Kant explained the emotions of the beautiful by connecting them to knowledge, but even Kant could not understand the function of music in cognition. This book presents a revolutionary theory of musical origin based on the fundamental and concrete function of musical emotions in cognition, a theory confirmed by experiments that promises to unify the field and defines new research directions. The book reviews theories of music. It considers the split in the vocalizations of proto-humans into two types: one less emotional and helping to think, evolving into language, and the other preserving ancient emotional connections along with semantic ambiguity, evolving into music. The evolution of language toward the powerful tool of differentiated thinking required freeing the voice from ancient emotional influences. An opposing strive of the human soul demanding synthesis required the compensatory evolution of music toward more differentiated and refined emotionality. The need for pop songs and refined music is grounded in fundamental mechanisms of the mind: evolution of language resulted in the multiplicity of cognitive dissonances, which would stop the evolution of language and culture without the presence of music. This is why today’s human mind and cultures cannot exist without today’s music. The cognitive functions of music are to overcome cognitive dissonances. We live with cognitive dissonances, which can be unpleasant and even painful. We live in a sea of unpleasant emotions, from minor everyday disappointments, to unrequited love, to the ultimate fear of death, and music helps alleviate this pain. This is why music is so important for us. I discuss empirical traces of this theory in parallel evolution of musical styles and cultures. Experimental verification of this theory in psychological and neuroimaging research is reviewed in the book. Radical differences among musical experts about musical emotions are related to differences in personality types. The final chapter discusses directions of future research and challenges that will need to be overcome.

Chapter 1

Theories of Music

Abstract

Music—why we enjoy it, why it has such power over us, its origins, its evolution, and its cognitive functions—has been considered a mystery by Aristotle, by Darwin, and by contemporary musicologists. This chapter reviews attempts to explain mysterious properties of music from Pythgoras till today. Ancient Greek philosophers saw dangers of untamed emotions and looked for musical appeal to reason. Since Renaissance emotional power of music was gradually accepted, Tonality emerged for expressing emotions in music. Based on Descartes’ theory of emotions, The Doctrine of the Affections was developed. Deficiencies of Descartes’ theory are related to opera seria, Calzabigi and Gluck reform is related to synthesis of emotions and reason. Misunderstanding of cognitive mechanisms affects development of opera. The first attempt at scientific understanding of music begins since Helmholtz, whose theory is briefly summarized. While in the Middle Ages Church has been afraid of strong emotions, today this role is performed by academic musicians. Prominent current theories of musical emotions are briefly summarized: while interesting ideas are discussed, scientific understanding is missing, contradictions and confusions abound. Music remains a mystery.

Keywords

Music; mystery; emotions; Plato; Aristotle; St. Augustine; polyphony; tonality; opera; Monteverdi; Calzabigi; Gluck; Hanslick; Sloboda; Cross; Mithen; Justlin; Trehub; Levitin; Honing

Contents

Music Is a Mystery 1

Theories of Musical Emotions and Music Origins 2

2500 Years of Western Music and Prescientific Theories (From Pythagoras to the 18th Century) 2

Whence Beauty in Sound? 5

Current Theories of Musical Emotions 8

Difficulties Remain. Music Is a Mystery 15

Music Is a Mystery

Approximately 2400 years ago Aristotle was the first to ask: why music being just sounds reminds states of soul? He listed the power of music among unsolved problems next to finiteness of the world and existence of God. Kant, who so brilliantly explained the epistemology of the beautiful and the sublime, which he related to knowledge, could not explain music: (As for) the expansion of the faculties … in the judgment for cognition, music will have the lowest place among (the beautiful arts)… because it merely plays with senses. Darwin discovered laws of evolution of species and thought that everything in the living world can be explained by evolution. There was one exception that Darwin had a great difficulty to explain within his theory: music must be ranked amongst the most mysterious (abilities) with which (man) is endowed.

Contemporary evolutionary psychologists and musicologists cannot explain music. Pinker follows Kant, suggesting that music is an auditory cheesecake, a by-product of natural selection that just happened to tickle the sensitive spots. In 2008, Nature, the oldest and most prestigious scientific journal, published a series of essays on music. Their authors agreed that music is a cross-cultural universal, still none … has yet been able to answer the fundamental question: why does music have such power over us? We might start by accepting that it is fruitless to try to define ‘music’. Music is a human cultural universal that serves no obvious adaptive purpose, making its evolution a puzzle for evolutionary biologists. These are just a sampling of quotes from accomplished scientists.

After reviewing selected theories, I present a new theory based on arguments from cognitive science and mathematical models of the mind suggesting that music serves the most important and concrete function in cognition and in evolution of the mind and cultures. This function is elucidated, its neural mechanisms are discussed, and experimentally testable predictions are made. Then I describe experimental verifications of this hypothesis and discuss parallel coevolution of music and culture.

Theories of Musical Emotions and Music Origins

During the last two decades, the mysterious powers of music receive scientific foundations due to the research of scientists in several fields. Integration of this research in recent years provides evidence for the evolutionary origins and cognitive functions of music. This chapter provides a selection of views on the function of music in cognition from ancient philosophers to contemporary research.

2500 Years of Western Music and Prescientific Theories (From Pythagoras to the 18th Century)

Pythagoras described the main harmonies as whole-number ratios of sound frequencies about 2500 years ago. He saw this as the connection between music and the celestial spheres, which also seemed to be governed by whole numbers. The tremendous potency of music to affect consciousness, to move people’s souls and bodies since time immemorial was ambivalently perceived. Ancient Greek philosophers saw the human psyche as prone to dangerous emotional influences and proper music served to harmonize the psyche with reason. Plato wrote about the idealized imagined music of the Golden Age of Greece: "… (Musical) types were … fixed. Afterwards … an unmusical license set in with the appearance of poets … men of native genius, but ignorant of what is right and legitimate … Possessed by a frantic and unhallowed lust for pleasure, they contaminated … and created a universal confusion of forms … So the next stage … will be … contempt for oaths