Reason, Matthew ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0536-4236, Jola, Corinne, Kay, Rosie, Reynolds, Dee, Kauppi, Jukka-Pekka, Grobras, Marie-Helene, Tohka, Jussi and Pollcik, Frank (2016) Spectators’ aesthetic experience of sound and movement in dance performance: A transdisciplinary investigation. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 10 (1). pp. 42-55.

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Abstract

We utilize qualitative audience research and functional brain imaging (fMRI) to examine the aesthetic experience of watching dance both with and without music. This transdisciplinary approach was motivated by the recognition that the aesthetic experience of dance revealed through conscious interpretation could have neural correlates in brain activity. When audiences were engaged in watching dance accompanied by music, the fMRI data revealed evidence of greater intersubject correlation in a left anterior region of the superior temporal gyrus known to be involved in complex audio processing. Moreover, the qualitative data revealed how spectators derived pleasure from finding convergences between 2 complex stimuli (dance and music). Without music, greater intersubject correlation was found bilaterally in a posterior region of the superior temporal gyrus, showing that bodily sounds such as breath provide a more salient auditory signal than music in primary auditory regions. Watching dance without music also resulted in increased intersubject correlation among spectators in the parietal and occipitotemporal cortices, suggesting a greater influence of the body than when interpreting the dance stimuli with music. Similarly, the audience research found evidence of corporeally focused experience, but suggests that while embodied responses were common across spectators, they were accompanied by different evaluative judgments.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.
Status:	Published
DOI:	10.1037/a0040032
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > NX Arts in general Q Science > Q Science (General)
School/Department:	School of the Arts
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/1294

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