The emotional power of poetry: neural circuitry, psychophysiology and compositional principles

  • It is a common experience—and well established experimentally—that music can engage us emotionally in a compelling manner. The mechanisms underlying these experiences are receiving increasing scrutiny. However, the extent to which other domains of aesthetic experience can similarly elicit strong emotions is unknown. Using psychophysiology, neuroimaging and behavioral responses, we show that recited poetry can act as a powerful stimulus for eliciting peak emotional responses, including chills and objectively measurable goosebumps that engage the primary reward circuitry. Importantly, while these responses to poetry are largely analogous to those found for music, their neural underpinnings show important differences, specifically with regard to the crucial role of the nucleus accumbens. We also go beyond replicating previous music-related studies by showing that peak aesthetic pleasure can co-occur with physiological markers of negative affect. Finally, the distribution of chills across the trajectory of poems provides insight into compositional principles of poetry.

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Metadaten
Author:Eugen Wassiliwizky, Stefan Koelsch, Valentin Wagner, Thomas Jacobsen, Winfried MenninghausORCiDGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-469033
Handle:http://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-001M-0000-002D-4F9C-4
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsx069
ISSN:1229-1240
Parent Title (English):Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
Publisher:Oxford Univ. Press
Place of publication:Oxford
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Year of Completion:2017
Year of first Publication:2017
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Release Date:2018/06/29
Tag:Empirische Ästhetik
aesthetic reward; chills; neuroaesthetics; piloerection; poetic language
GND Keyword:Neuroästhetik; Nucleus accumbens; Lyrik; Ästhetik; Musikästhetik
Volume:2017
Page Number:12
First Page:1
Last Page:12
HeBIS-PPN:435982176
Dewey Decimal Classification:8 Literatur / 80 Literatur, Rhetorik, Literaturwissenschaft / 800 Literatur und Rhetorik
Sammlungen:CompaRe | Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft
CompaRe | Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft / Max-Planck-Institut für empirische Ästhetik (MPIEA)
BDSL-Klassifikation:03.00.00 Literaturwissenschaft / BDSL-Klassifikation: 03.00.00 Literaturwissenschaft > 03.08.00 Poetik / BDSL-Klassifikation: 03.00.00 Literaturwissenschaft > 03.08.00 Poetik > 03.08.01 Studien
Licence (German):License LogoCreative Commons - Namensnennung 4.0