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The Production and Perception of Emotionally Expressive Walking Sounds: Similarities between Musical Performance and Everyday Motor Activity – BL. Giordano, H. Egermann, R. Bresin, PLoS ONE 9(12): e115587
Several studies have investigated the encoding and perception of emotional expressivity in music performance. A relevant question concerns how the ability to communicate emotions in music performance is acquired. In accordance with recent theories on the embodiment of emotion, the authors suggest that both the expression and recognition of emotion in music might at least in part rely on knowledge about the sounds of expressive body movements. The authors test this hypothesis by drawing parallels between musical expression of emotions and expression of emotions in sounds associated with a non-musical motor activity: walking. Taken together, the results lend support the motor origin hypothesis for the musical expression of emotions.
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