Emotion and Cognition Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, CJ 400015, Romania.
Brain Cogn. 2011 Jun;76(1):146-57. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2011.01.012. Epub 2011 Apr 8.
Operatic music involves both singing and acting (as well as rich audiovisual background arising from the orchestra and elaborate scenery and costumes) that multiply the mechanisms by which emotions are induced in listeners. The present study investigated the effects of music, plot, and acting performance on emotions induced by opera. There were three experimental conditions: (1) participants listened to a musically complex and dramatically coherent excerpt from Tosca; (2) they read a summary of the plot and listened to the same musical excerpt again; and (3) they re-listened to music while they watched the subtitled film of this acting performance. In addition, a control condition was included, in which an independent sample of participants succesively listened three times to the same musical excerpt. We measured subjective changes using both dimensional, and specific music-induced emotion questionnaires. Cardiovascular, electrodermal, and respiratory responses were also recorded, and the participants kept track of their musical chills. Music listening alone elicited positive emotion and autonomic arousal, seen in faster heart rate, but slower respiration rate and reduced skin conductance. Knowing the (sad) plot while listening to the music a second time reduced positive emotions (peacefulness, joyful activation), and increased negative ones (sadness), while high autonomic arousal was maintained. Watching the acting performance increased emotional arousal and changed its valence again (from less positive/sad to transcendent), in the context of continued high autonomic arousal. The repeated exposure to music did not by itself induce this pattern of modifications. These results indicate that the multiple musical and dramatic means involved in operatic performance specifically contribute to the genesis of music-induced emotions and their physiological correlates.
歌剧音乐融合了歌唱和表演（以及管弦乐队、精心制作的布景和服装所带来的丰富视听背景），这使得听众产生情感的机制倍增。本研究调查了音乐、情节和表演对歌剧引起的情感的影响。有三种实验条件：（1）参与者听选自《托斯卡》的音乐复杂且情节连贯的片段；（2）他们阅读情节概要，然后再次听相同的音乐片段；（3）他们在观看该表演的字幕电影的同时重新听音乐。此外，还包括一个对照条件，其中一组独立的参与者连续三次听相同的音乐片段。我们使用多维和特定的音乐诱发情感问卷来衡量主观变化。还记录了心血管、皮肤电和呼吸反应，参与者记录他们的音乐颤栗。仅听音乐就会引起积极的情绪和自主唤醒，表现为心率加快，但呼吸减慢，皮肤电导率降低。第二次听音乐时了解（悲伤的）情节会减少积极情绪（平静、愉快的激活），增加消极情绪（悲伤），同时保持高自主唤醒。观看表演会再次增加情绪唤醒并改变其效价（从较少的积极/悲伤到超越），同时保持持续的高自主唤醒。重复听音乐本身并不会引起这种模式的变化。这些结果表明，歌剧表演中涉及的多种音乐和戏剧手段专门有助于音乐诱发情感及其生理相关性的产生。
