14 DAY TRIAL // It's a well-known fact that people like to close their eyes at times when listening to music, so as to feel more immersed in the auditory sensation. Music fans around the world do this constantly, often at the expense of their losing their workplace or alienating friends. A new scientific paper has recently revealed that people who listen to creepy music with their eyes closed tend to find it even creepier, with the same holding true for those closing their eyes during a horror movie. The research was conducted by Tel Aviv University neuroscientist and psychiatrist Talma Hendler, LiveScience reports.
In previous scientific studies, it has been revealed that people exhibit altered brain wave patterns from normal activity when they close their eyes. Experts explained this by showing that the amount of information processed via visual organs was so large, that it led to the brain understanding its environment better. Processing images requires a lot of brain power, therefore the changes must originate within this mechanism. However, until now, no one has looked at the influence music has on human brain waves when the participants' eyes are closed.
In the new experiments, Hendler says, 15 volunteers were asked to listen to “Hitchcock-like, frightening themes,” with their eyes opened, and then closed. At certain points, the test subjects were made to listen simple tones, with no melody to them, therefore no emotional charge. Results of the analysis revealed that the participants indeed responded stronger to more emotionally charged and scary music when they were not looking at anything. The study showed that, with the eyes closed, the amygdala – a brain region linked to processing fear – ramped up its activity.
When this happened, it released chemical agents that ramped up the alertness levels in other cortical areas as well, including in centers related to vigilance to the environment and regulation of emotion. However, a very peculiar fact that was discovered was that participants who listened to the music with their eyes opened, but in complete darkness, did not exhibit the same type of brain changes. This seems to point at the fact that other factors besides the lack of vision may be at work as well.
“It seems when you close your eyes, your brain has this reflexive response to go into a different state of mind that results in the amplification of certain information,” Hendler concludes. Details of the new experiments appear online in the July 15th issue of the scientific journal PLoS ONE.