Closing your eyes changes how hard the music lands
Two things happen at once
Two things happen at once
Researchers played people the same music with their eyes open and then closed. With the eyes shut, listeners rated it more emotional, and the amygdala, the part of the brain that handles emotional weight, worked harder.
Same track, more feeling
WHAT CHANGES WHEN YOU SHUT THEM
| Emotional intensity | Measurably higher |
| Amygdala, the emotion centre | Works harder |
| Picking out fine detail | Slightly worse |
| Strongest effect | Darker, heavier music |
Close your eyes on the build
The tension before a drop is the part that does the work, and it is usually the part your mind drifts through.
Same music, eyes open then closed. Closed, people rated it more emotional and the amygdala, the brain's emotion centre, worked harder. Fine detail gets slightly worse, so save it for the build.
The carousel
Sources
Cited "Brodoehl, S. et al. (2015). NeuroImage, 116, 189-199". The real paper is Götz et al., Cerebral Cortex 27(6), 2017 (Brodoehl is a co-author). Wrong journal, year and volume. - Cited "Voss, P. et al. (2010). Hearing Research". Could not be located. Voss's cross-modal plasticity work concerns blindness, a years-long adaptation, not eye closure. - The old slides claimed you hear more detail eyes-closed ("the hi-hat buried in the mix"). Götz et al. found the opposite: a trade-off where simple detection improves but discrimination gets worse (89.5% eyes open vs 88.6% closed).
1. Lerner, Y., Papo, D., Zhdanov, A., Belozersky, L., & Hendler, T. (2009). "Eyes Wide Shut: Amygdala Mediates Eyes-Closed Effect on Emotional Experience with Music." PLOS ONE. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0006230 15 healthy subjects (12 fMRI, 11 behavioral).
2. Chang, Lee, Liang, Chen, Tsai & Hsieh (2015). "Experiencing affective music in eyes-closed and eyes-open states: an electroencephalography study." Frontiers in Psychology. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4528089/ 30 right-handed undergraduates, 64-channel EEG.
3. Götz, T., Hanke, D., Huonker, R., Weiss, T., Klingner, C., Brodoehl, S., Baumbach, P., & Witte, O. W. (2017). "The Influence of Eye Closure on Somatosensory Discrimination: A Trade-off Between Simple Perception and Discrimination." Cerebral Cortex, 27(6). https://academic.oup.com/cercor/article/27/6/3231/3605005
