Dynamic intersubject neural synchronization reflects affective responses to sad music

Sharing the social world via intersubject neural synchronization

Sociability and capability of shared mental states are hallmarks of the human species, and pursuing shared goals oftentimes requires coordinating both behaviour and mental states. Here we review recent work using indices of intersubject neural synchronisation for measuring similarity of mental states across individuals. We discuss the methodological advances and limitations in the analyses base...

Brain connectivity reflects human aesthetic responses to music.

Humans uniquely appreciate aesthetics, experiencing pleasurable responses to complex stimuli that confer no clear intrinsic value for survival. However, substantial variability exists in the frequency and specificity of aesthetic responses. While pleasure from aesthetics is attributed to the neural circuitry for reward, what accounts for individual differences in aesthetic reward sensitivity re...

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)?

Every winter, especially when the days are short, I feel tired, depressed, and unproductive. Then the spring comes and I start feeling myself again. Is this just a normal seasonal cycle? I've heard about SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder, but don't know much about it. Answer Dear Melancholy Baby, Somebody must've been feeling a bit clever when they christened the wintertime blues with the acrony...

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)?

Sad music induces pleasant emotion

In general, sad music is thought to cause us to experience sadness, which is considered an unpleasant emotion. As a result, the question arises as to why we listen to sad music if it evokes sadness. One possible answer to this question is that we may actually feel positive emotions when we listen to sad music. This suggestion may appear to be counterintuitive; however, in this study, by dividin...