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Prenatal behavioural and biochemical emotional
communicationand the origins of music
Richard ParncuttDepartment of Musicology, University of Graz, Austria
Presented at Evolution of Emotional Communication (EEC 2007), Hannover, Germany, 27-29 September 2007
QuestionHow does music induce emotion? (Juslin)
Hypothesis
Music is a byproduct of prenatal
auditory, vestibular and proprioceptive function
A theoretical paper
• idea and argument
• reference to diverse disciplines– ethnomusicology, historical musicology– psychology, sociology– physiology, medicine, gynecology, pediatrics– acoustics, psychoacoustics, audiology– zoology, ethology
Literature exampleHopkins & Johnson (Eds.) (2005)
Prenatal development of postnatal functions
Pallas: Pre- and postnatal sensory experience shapes functional architecture in the brain
Lecanuet, Granier-Deferre, DeCasper: Are we expecting too much from prenatal experiences?
Schaal: From amnion to colostrum in milk: Odor bridging in early developmental transitions
Porter, Winberg, Varendi: Prenatal preparation for early postnatal olfactory learning
Robinson, Kleven: Learning to move before birth
de Vries, Hopkins: Fetal movements and postures: What do they mean for postnatal development?
Glover, O‘Connor: Effects of antenatal maternal stress and anxiety: From fetus to child
Ecological approach
Perception depends primarily on interaction with environmental affordances (Gibson)
– does not contradict cognitive approaches
– appropriate if no reflective consciousness
Music and emotion1. Strong emotions assoc. with survival and reproduction (evolutionary psychology; Buss)
– hunger, anger, fear– sexual arousal, love, jealousy
2. Music evokes strong emotions (Sloboda; Gabrielsson)
3. But music is unnecessary for survival & reproduction (Pinker)
– art is by definition non-functional...although music may enhance fitness
– through social relationships
The mystery of music’s origins
Why does music evoke strong emotions
although it has no clear adaptive value?
Association music↔emotion
Musical emotions may be…
...carried by learned sound & movement patterns – nostalgia (episodic memory, “They’re playing our song”)
– youth culture and identity
...based on motherese– universal emotional-gestural vocabulary? (Papousek)
– nature or nurture? (Trehub)
Ontogeny of auditory, vestibular and proprioceptive function
The following emerge near the middle of gestation:
1. Audition – physiological and behavioral evidence (Hepper, Lecanuet...)
2. Vestibular sense– semicircular canals (rotation) – otoliths (linear acceleration)– evidence is only physiological
3. Motor control and proprioception (Smotherman & Robinson)
The prenatal stage as a developmental niche
Adaptive pressure– prenatal survival– postnatal survival
Transnatal (dis-) continuity
Nature, nurture or prenatal development? (Smotherman)
Infant mortality and bonding
Infant mortality > 50% in hunter-gatherer societies
anything that promotes infant survival is selected
Bonding, attachment (Trevarthen)
– mutual sensitivity to physical/emotional state– pre- and postnatal
Prenatal information about maternal state
• biochemical– changing hormone concentrations – quickly pass placenta and brain-blood barrier
• behavioural – patterns of sound and movement– perceptible after 20 weeks
Prenatal behavioral communication
Internal maternal sound and movement patterns – vocalization
– respiration
– circulation
– impacts (footsteps)
– movement
– digestion
All depend on maternal (emotional) state
Prenatal biochemical communication
Hormone concentrations in maternal blood reflect physical and emotional state
adrenaline (epinephrine), adrenocorticotrophic hormone ACTH, aldosterone, corticosteroids, corticotrophin-releasing
hormone CRH, cortisol, dopamine, endorphins, glucocorticoids, insulin, melatonin, mineralicorticoids, noradrenaline (norepinephrine), oestrogen, oxytocin,
prolactin, serotonin, testosterone, thyrosine…
= a complex, redundant signal (like music)
Possible mechanism: hypothalmus-pituitary axis
maternal stress/anxiety
↓increased maternal CRH
increased fetal cortisolreduced uterine blood flow
↓ congenital abnormalities
preterm laborbehavioral problems
(Glover & O‘Connor)
A 3-stage model of music’s origin
stage phylogenesis ontogenesis
prenatal classical
conditioning
prenatal audition
107 – 108
years ago20 weeks gestation
postnatal operant
conditioning
walk + big brain
altricialitymotherese
106 – 107 years ago birth
reflective consciousness
cultural explosion
~ 105 years ago 1-3 years
Prenatal conditioning
Emotion is defined as response to change.
Regular everyday temporal sequence of changes:– maternal physiology
• environment (external event)• maternal state
– fetal perception• internal sound and movement patterns• hormone levels
Many repetitions of similar patterns over 4 months– must the fetus be “awake”?
Prenatal associations between sound, movement and emotion
… are presumably strong due to…– prenatal dominance of audition – survival value of prenatal communication
Music and the mother schemaInfant schema = cuteness (Lorenz)
• cognitive representation of infant • perceived by mother / adults
...but bonding is a two-way interaction!
Mother schema = voice, smell, breast, motherese• cognitive representation of mother• perceived by fetus / infant
– first schema in life– primary environmental object – basis of music’s personal and spiritual properties?
EvidenceEarly parent-offspring conflict (Haig)
– placenta hormonally manipulates nutrient supply
Prenatal learning (Hepper, Smotherman)
– exposure, habituation, conditioning – human and non-human data– chemosensory (Schaal; Porter) & auditory (Decasper & Fifer)
– function: perinatal bonding
Infant sensitivity to music (Trehub)
– nature or nurture?
Postnatal operant conditioning
Quasi-random behaviors
in motherese, play and ritual– produce sound/movement patterns– evoke prenatally established associations
These behaviors are reinforced – their frequency of occurrence increases
Transnatal implicit memory
Duration in empirical studies: – 5 weeks (Granier-Deferr; Hepper)
– long enough to influence motherese
Protomusic in motherese, play, ritual– reinforces associations– distorts associations
“Real” music
Protomusic became music 35-100 kya – with reflective consciousness (Noble & Davidson)
– during cultural explosion (Mithen)
Prediction (1)Prenatally hearing animals e.g.
– primates– sheep, goats– guinea pigs– whales, seals, walrus?
...should...– associate prenatal
sound↔movement↔emotion– imitate complex sound & movement
patterns (Merker)
Prediction (2)
Ultrasound images of fetal face
in 3rd trimester (Kurjak)
should in part reflect
maternal emotional state
Conclusion (1)A theory of music as a
byproduct of prenatal auditory-vestibular-proprioceptive function and bonding
is consistent with music’s– universality– emotional power– structures (rhythmic, melodic, harmonic)– specific universal characteristics
• individual, social• personal, spiritual, religious• pain reducing, healing, entrancing
Conclusion (2)
Prenatal byproduct theory is complementary to other theories of music’s origins such as
– extended vocalisation (Sachs, Wallin...)– playful imitation (Cazden, Dissanayake, Tolbert...)– cognitive-motor training (Roederer)– social glue (Cross, Huron...)
• no contradiction • clearer separation of origin and function