J Korean Neurol Assoc.  1986 Jun;4(1):86-95.

Cerebral Lateralization of the Affect Evoked by Music

• Lee JI
• Kim MJ

Abstract

In order to study the cerebral lateralization of the affective response induced by music, the authors chose healthy, right-handed, male students and several pieces of tape-recorded music eliciting either positive or negative affect were given to the left ear to one group and to the right ear to the other. The affctive responses were subjectively measured by subjects after each music by means of the Visual Analogue Scale to compare between the two groups. The results were as follows; 1. Pleasant and comfortable music elicited significantly greater affective response in the left-ear group compared to the right-ear group. 2. After disharmonious and unpleasant music, no difference in the degree of affective response was noted between the two groups. From the above results and a survey of the previous literatures on the subject, the authors suggest that the cerebral lateralization of the affective response may be determined by the mode of affecteliciting stimuli and/or the variety of the affect involved.

MeSH Terms

Ear
Humans
Male
Music*