Effects of Sad and Happy Music on Mind-Wandering and the Default Mode Network
Scientific Reports October 25, 2017 Liila Taruffi, Corinna Pehrs, Stavros Skouras et al. 177 citations
Listening to sad music, compared with happy music, leads people to withdraw attention inward and engage in more mind-wandering—spontaneous, self-referential thought. Three experiments using probe-caught thought sampling and fMRI showed that sad music was associated with stronger mind-wandering and greater centrality of nodes in the Default Mode Network (DMN). The findings demonstrate that DMN activity can be modulated by the emotional valence of music, suggesting that sad music promotes internally directed cognition. These results have implications for using music in education and clinical settings to influence thought patterns.