Brain state dynamics reflect emotion transitions induced by music

Our ability to shift from one emotion to the next allows us to adapt our behaviors to a constantly-changing and often uncertain environment. Although previous studies have identified cortical and subcortical regions involved in affective responding, no studies have asked whether and how these regions track and represent transitions between different emotional states and modulate their responses based on the recent emotional context. To this end, we commissioned new musical pieces designed to systematically move participants through different emotional states during fMRI. Using a combination of data-driven (Hidden Markov Modeling) and hypothesis-driven methods, we show that spatiotemporal patterns of activation along the temporoparietal axis reflect transitions between music-evoked emotions. Furthermore, self-reported emotions and the subsequent neural response patterns were sensitive to the emotional context in which the music was heard. The findings highlight the role of temporal and parietal brain regions in not only processing low-level auditory signals, but in linking changes in these signals with our on-going, contextually-dependent emotional responses.