The Influence of Musically-Induced Emotion on Biases in Visual and Auditory Spatial Attention
Jane Barrow
Advisor: Carryl Baldwin, PhD, CHSSWeb Design Preview
Committee Members: Raja Parasuraman, Patrick McKnight
David J. King Hall, #1019
November 22, 2013, 10:30 AM to 07:30 AM
Abstract:
This dissertation investigated the influence that differing levels of musically-induced emotional valence might have on biases in visual and auditory spatial attention. At the core of this dissertation is the phenomenon of pseudoneglect – an asymmetry in visuospatial attention found in neurologically normal individuals when performing simple line bisections. The resulting bisections are reliably to the left of true center, presumably due to greater activation of areas in the right hemisphere of the brain associated with visuospatial attention. Auditory versions of the line bisection task have demonstrated a rightward asymmetry, presumably due to greater activation in the left hemisphere of the brain, though the distinction of whether spatial attention is supra-modal or modality specific is still being debated. Further, there are studies in the literature that suggest an emotional influence to spatial attention, while others suggest that there is no impact. The main two questions were whether differences in emotional valence can alter inherent asymmetries in visual and auditory spatial attention, and whether visual and auditory spatial attention are governed by differing areas of the brain as educed from demonstrable biases. The studies within this dissertation were designed to pit the opposing theories and findings against one another so that the outcome would support one viewpoint or the other, further fueling the academic debate.
The circumplex and integrative theories of emotion state that right frontal regions of the brain are associated with negative emotions, while left frontal regions of the brain are associated with positive emotions. Further, emotional arousal is associated with right parietal structures. Based on these theories, inducing specific emotional states should lead to greater activation in one hemisphere or the other, within the frontal lobe. Studies examining these theories have also found that when emotional arousal is high, the effects of valence are often eclipsed, leading to the requirement of low emotional arousal for the tasks in this dissertation in order to allow for effects of valence. Music was used in an attempt to elicit emotion from participants as it has been shown to be a strong though subtle emotional elicitor, provided that participants are kept naïve to its true purpose.
In addition to determining if emotional state can influence the inherent asymmetries found in visual and auditory line bisections, and whether spatial attention is supra-modal or modality specific, this dissertation also investigated whether the effects are restrained to static judgments or if it also applies to continuous judgments. The results demonstrated that overall, there was a leftward bisection bias on the static visual task as well as on the continuous visual task. There was an overall rightward bisection bias on the static auditory task, but there was a strong leftward bias on the continuous auditory task. There was only one interaction with music condition, which occurred in the continuous visual task. The interaction suggested that individuals who were in the sad music condition bisected further to the left of true center than those in the happy music condition, but this effect was moderated by other manipulations within the task.
The findings from this dissertation suggest that emotional experience does have some effect on asymmetries in spatial attention, though the tasks used here may not be the best way to demonstrate that effect. The findings also support a modality specific explanation of spatial attention, since bisections on the visual and auditory versions of the static task went in opposite directions. Although this wasn’t shown in the continuous versions of the task, the differences suggest that the processing of visual and auditory spatial attention is not taking place in the same areas within the brain. Although further study and extension is needed to give solid answers to the questions posed by this dissertation, the findings here provide a valuable first step in the direction of understanding the impacts of emotion on asymmetries in visual and auditory spatial attention.
