The Experience of Music in Aphantasia: Emotion, Reward, and Everyday Functions
Abstract
Visual imagery has been proposed to be one of eight mechanisms by which music induces emotion in listeners. Initial research into aphantasia, a condition referring to individuals who do not (or only minimally) form visual imagery in their mind's eye, suggests that aphantasics may experience reduced emotional experiences in response to imagined stimuli. In this two-part online investigation, we sought to explore the emotional experiences of aphantasics within the context of music listening. In Survey 1, we compared 51 aphantasics to 51 control individuals in terms of their experiences of visual imagery, liking, and felt emotional intensity when listening to three film music excerpts. We found significant group differences in terms of visual imagery and felt emotional intensity, but not liking. In Survey 2, we examined aphantasics’ ability to recognize emotions conveyed by music, and their patterns of experience of, and engagement with, music in everyday life by comparing the responses of 29 aphantasics with 29 matched controls. We found no differences in terms of emotion discrimination ability. However, aphantasics generally experienced less Reminiscence (dimension from the Adaptive Functions of Music Listening scale) to music, as well as fewer Episodic Memories (dimension from the MecScale). Aphantasics and control listeners did not exhibit differences in terms of sensitivity to musical reward (measured using the BMRQ) or in terms of musical sophistication (measured using the Gold-MSI). Finally, our findings suggest nuanced differences between controls and those with pure and minimal aphantasia. In all, we reveal the influence that aphantasia can have on emotional responses to music and thus provide further evidence for the relationship between visual imagery and music-induced emotion.
Authors
- Sarah Hashim1
- Claudia Pulcini1
- Ashok Jansari1
- Mats B. Küssner1
- Diana Omigie1
What This Study Is About
How They Studied It
- Survey 1: 51 people with aphantasia and 51 "typical" visualizers (the control group) listened to three movie music clips. They rated how much they liked the music, how intense the emotions felt, and what they "saw" in their minds.
- Survey 2: A smaller group (29 aphantasics and 29 controls) answered detailed questions about how they use music to handle stress, remember the past, or feel rewards. They also took a test to see if they could tell the difference between "happy" and "sad" melodies.
What They Found
- The Volume Knob Effect: People with aphantasia felt the music’s emotions less intensely than visualizers. It’s as if mental images act like an emotional amplifier.
- Liking vs. Feeling: Even though they felt the emotions less intensely, aphantasics liked the music just as much as everyone else!
- Memory Gap: The biggest difference was in "reminiscence." Aphantasics were much less likely to use music to "time travel" back to specific personal memories.
- Equal Skills: Aphantasics were just as good at identifying the emotions in a song (like telling if a tune is "tender" or "scary") as the control group.