Music and literature: are there shared empathy and predictive mechanisms underlying their affective impact?

Omigie, Diana. 2015. Music and literature: are there shared empathy and predictive mechanisms underlying their affective impact? Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1250. ISSN 1664-1078 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

It has been suggested that music and language had a shared evolutionary precursor before becoming mainly responsible for the communication of emotive and referential meaning respectively. However, emphasis on potential differences between music and language may discourage a consideration of the commonalities that music and literature share. Indeed, one possibility is that common mechanisms underlie their affective impact, and the current paper carefully reviews relevant neuroscientific findings to examine such a prospect. First and foremost, it will be demonstrated that considerable evidence of a common role of empathy and predictive processes now exists for the two domains. However, it will also be noted that an important open question remains: namely, whether the mechanisms underlying the subjective experience of uncertainty differ between the two domains with respect to recruitment of phylogenetically ancient emotion areas. It will be concluded that a comparative approach may not only help to reveal general mechanisms underlying our responses to music and literature, but may also help us better understand any idiosyncrasies in their capacity for affective impact.

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01250

Keywords:

music, literature, emotions, esthetic, empathy, theory of mind, tension, active inference

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Psychology

Dates:

DateEvent
5 August 2015Accepted
24 July 2015Published

Item ID:

23523

Date Deposited:

21 Jun 2018 09:58

Last Modified:

04 Aug 2021 08:57

Peer Reviewed:

Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/23523

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