Neurocognitive approach in distinguishing tonal and atonal chords

In this dissertation study, built on the hypothesis that tonal chords create positive whereas atonal chords create negative emotional effects, impacts of tonal and atonal chords on the brain were observed through the use of theoretical and methodological tools of two distinct disciplines, namely, radiology and musicology. The impacts were studied in terms of emotions evoked by the chords as well as the activated parts of brain. The findings were shown to be in accordance with the hypothesis when evaluated based on the literature. It was also remarkable that the right brain was activated more intensively by the tonal chords while the same was the case for the left brain by the atonal. This study is one of the firsts in the literature to examine the overlap between theoretical discourse on tonal and atonal chords and the perception of these by participants without any musical preparation for the experiment.In this study, fifteen right-handed female non-musician participants aged 25-48 were made to listen to the samples of tonal and atonal chords during the fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) registration and their brain activations were examined. The participants were interviewed after the fMRI registration and asked to comment on the emotional connotations of the tonal and atonal chords they had listened to. The findings aquired in the interviews and fMRI brain scans were evaluated based on the literature, thereby the impacts of the chords were studied. The images were analysed by SPM2 (Statistical Parametric Mapping) software.