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

Conclusion (3)

Prenatal conditioning may represent

the ultimate origin of music

but may not explain individual differences

in music behaviors and abilities