Tone of Voice and Mind : The Connections between Intonation ...

The brain code 139
5. The motivational force of emotion is due to the need to resolve unresolved
harmonic tension.
Implication (5) leads directly into the world of the relationship between language
and emotion (Kövecses 2000) and will not be pursued here. Suffice it to
say that when emotional states are expressed through language, the subsequent
linguistic response (in a monologue or conversation) will be motivated by the
tonal implications in the RH intonatopic map. In a word, harmonic tension
in the voice will not be left standing, but will be followed by resolution in the
form of the establishment of dominance or subordinance of one of the players
in the narrative.
That voice intonation leads to some form of tonotopic mapping in the RH
is almost certain, given what is known about auditory cortex and the effects of
brain damage (Chapter 2), but alone the neuropsychological findings do not
provide sufficient detail to elaborate a “brain code”. What is more contentious
is the idea that the affective valence of the pitch information in the voice obtains
its meaning from chordal structure that is related to known diatonic harmonic
phenomena. A more cautious statement of the nature of the affect produced
by three or more tones was attempted in Chapter 3, where the fundamental
dimension of tonal affect was stated simply as “stability/instability”–with two
forms of stability in the directions of major and minor harmonies. Although
the general case can be stated most precisely in that way, it is only when we
have related the pitch combinations to positive and negative affect that we have
the possibility of a cortical theory of emotions. Therefore, while acknowledging
that further qualification might well be needed – especially when considering
primitive cultures and young children, it is worth exploring what implications
a harmonic theory of emotions has for the bilateral activation of
intonatopic maps.
What specific patterns of cortical activation would be expected from a
tonotopic theory of emotion? In so far as the right hemisphere is a more sensitive
detector of pitch and pitch combinations, it should be dominant for the
detection and representation of emotional states. Moreover, in so far as harmonic
mode is determined by three tones – two of which, the high and low
tones, set the tonal context, and a third mid-lying tone that specifies the tension
or positive/negative affect of the harmony – three basic patterns of activation
in tonotopic maps might be expected to correspond to three distinct affective
states (Figure 5-9).
The tonotopic organization shown in Figure 5-9 is depicted in relation to
absolute pitch values (in Hertz), but one further abstraction of the auditory