The emotional power of poetry: neural circuitry, psychophysiology and compositional principles
Publication date
2017-04-28
Document type
Research article
Author
Organisational unit
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Series or journal
Social cognitive and affective neuroscience
ISSN
Periodical volume
12
Periodical issue
8
First page
1229
Last page
1240
Peer-reviewed
✅
Part of the university bibliography
✅
Language
English
Abstract
It is a common experience-and well established experimentally-that music can engage us emotionally in a compelling manner. The mechanisms underlying these experiences are receiving increasing scrutiny. However, the extent to which other domains of aesthetic experience can similarly elicit strong emotions is unknown. Using psychophysiology, neuroimaging and behavioral responses, we show that recited poetry can act as a powerful stimulus for eliciting peak emotional responses, including chills and objectively measurable goosebumps that engage the primary reward circuitry. Importantly, while these responses to poetry are largely analogous to those found for music, their neural underpinnings show important differences, specifically with regard to the crucial role of the nucleus accumbens. We also go beyond replicating previous music-related studies by showing that peak aesthetic pleasure can co-occur with physiological markers of negative affect. Finally, the distribution of chills across the trajectory of poems provides insight into compositional principles of poetry.
Cite as
Eugen Wassiliwizky, Stefan Koelsch, Valentin Wagner, Thomas Jacobsen, Winfried Menninghaus, The emotional power of poetry: neural circuitry, psychophysiology and compositional principles, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Volume 12, Issue 8, August 2017, Pages 1229–1240, https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsx069
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Published version
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