Musical Stimuli Research Articles

Warm up with music and visual feedback can effect Wingate performance in futsal players

PurposeVisual feedback and music while warm up may help elicit peak performance, but its effect during the Wingate anaerobic test (WAnT) in futsal players is unexplored. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the effects of music and visual stimulus on WAnT performance in futsal players.MethodsThe study included 17 young male futsal players (age, 21.53 ± 1.32 years; height, 177.59 ± 5.75 cm; 73.71 ± 9.31 kg; BMI 23.342 ± .47). The WAnT was administered using three distinct protocols: with music (M), without music (NM), and with music and visual feedback (MV) following a 10-min warm-up at 72-h intervals. After WAnT, the following parameters were evaluated: (a) peak power output: PPO (W), (b) relative peak power output: RPPO (W/kg), (c) mean power output: MPO (W), (d) relative mean power output: RMPO (W/kg), (e) fatigue index: FI (%), and (f) minimum power output MIPO (W).ResultsMV indicated that futsal players' WAnT values, including PPO, RPPO, MPO, RMPO, and MIPO improved more than with other protocols (p < 0.05). However, there was no significant difference between protocols for FI (%) WAnT values (p > 0.05).ConclusionsListening to music and watching visual feedback while warm up before performing WAnT performance suggest to coaches and futsal players.

Unraveling the Filled Duration Illusion and its Stability in Repeated Measurements

Interval timing plays an essential role in various types of behavior including perception and production of music. However, subjectively perceived intervals may substantially differ from their objective durations. One of the phenomena, the filled duration illusion (FDI), is well described in the literature; however, there are still many questions to address concerning mechanisms behind this phenomenon. To further unravel the FDI, we asked 61 healthy adults to reproduce the duration of various acoustic stimuli (from 2 to 3 seconds). We used empty intervals (marked by two short tones) and filled intervals: a continuous tone or rhythmical tone sequences in legato or staccato. We demonstrated that the reproduction of empty intervals was shorter than reproduction of all filled intervals, whereas the reproduction of rhythmic intervals was the longest. Therefore, we clearly demonstrated and distinguished both types of the FDI—the sustained sound illusion and the divided time illusion—and documented their test-retest stability in two subsequent measurements. Moreover, we confirmed the effect of tone pitch on the reproduction—higher pitch tones were judged as longer. By testing all the mentioned phenomena in repeated measurements, we demonstrated the stability of the illusions and prepared the ground for an investigation of more complex musical stimuli.

Validation of Music Therapy Assessment Tool for Awareness in Disorders of Consciousness (MATADOC) with CRS-R

<h3>Research Objectives</h3> To examine the concurrent validity of the MATADOC with the criterion standard Coma Recovery Scale (CRS-R) for diagnostic outcomes of awareness To explore the function of comparable MATADOC items and CRS-R function scales across similar domains (e.g. auditory, visual). <h3>Design</h3> Prospective multisite cohort study collected concurrent MATADOC and CRS-R data using repeated measures with patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC). Raters were blinded. <h3>Setting</h3> Three specialist inpatient rehabilitation units for DOC (US, UK, Ireland). <h3>Participants</h3> 74 adults with prolonged DOC stemming from acquired brain injury recruited using convenience sampling. <h3>Interventions</h3> The MATADOC protocol elicits behavioral responsiveness using live music in five tasks during four clinical contacts of 15-30 minutes duration (60-120 mins total). Observed behavioral responses are rated across motor, communication, arousal, visual and auditory domains using a 14-item measure. Pre and post observation period records spontaneous behaviors. The CRS-R protocol delivers tasks in the motor, visual, auditory and communication domains in clinical contacts of 15-30 minutes duration (60 – 120 minutes in total for 4 contacts). Observed responses are rated in six function scales. <h3>Main Outcome Measures</h3> Two measures of awareness: MATADOC and CRS-R. <h3>Results</h3> Fair (Cohen's kappa or "k"=0.238, p=.006) ranging to moderate (k=0.419, p<.001) significant agreement found between CRS-R and MATADOC diagnostic outcomes for each contact, with significant correlations between scores (mean Pearson = 0.721, p<.001). Agreement increased over repeated contacts. Moderate agreement found for overall diagnostic outcomes ranging across VS, MCS and EMCS (k=0.397, p<.001). Moderate significant agreement found between measures for motor scores (k=.556, p<.001) and visual outcomes (mean k=0.326). No agreement was found for item outcomes assessing auditory responsiveness. <h3>Conclusions</h3> The MATADOC complements the CRS-R in treatment planning for DOC. MATADOC measures of auditory responsiveness suggest musical stimuli may elicit more complex behaviors than non-music protocols. The MATADOC rates complexity of auditory localization as MCS in line with recent recommendations which may explain diagnostic outcome differences with CRS-R outcomes. <h3>Author(s) Disclosures</h3> None.

Exploring relations between Big Five personality traits and musical emotions embodied in spontaneous dance

We explored the hypothesis that musical emotions are embodied differentially by people according to their personality. Nine hundred and fifty two individuals completed the Big Five personality inventory. A subset of 60 participants were asked to spontaneously move to 30 short musical stimuli while being recorded with a motion-capture system. The musical stimuli were separately rated for perceived emotions. Embodied musical emotions were evaluated as the correlation between features derived from the motion-capture data and the mean ratings of perceived emotions. Correlations between embodied musical emotions and personality traits provided tentative support for our hypothesis. A series of linear regression analyses revealed that scores on Openness and Agreeableness were most strongly, and Neuroticism and Conscientiousness most weakly, predicted by embodied musical emotions. Overall, our results offer tentative support for the existence of differential relationships between embodied musical emotions and personality, and describe statistical models that might be empirically tested in future studies.

Do emotions evoked by music modulate visuospatial working memory capacity? A physiological study

Previous studies have shown that emotions evoked through music can have transient effects on cognitive performance. Considering the importance of working memory (WM) in the processing of new information, in this study, we investigated the impact of positive and negative emotions evoked through music on visuospatial WM performance using a within-subjects design. Moreover, we concomitantly recorded the participants’ physiological responses during listening to musical stimuli. Seventy-eight participants were allocated to counterbalanced positive, negative, and neutral emotional inductions through music (EIM) followed by an adaptive visuospatial WM task. Results revealed that participants’ visuospatial WM performance was increased after positive EIM compared with negative and neutral EIMs transiently. We also observed increased skin conductance levels during positive EIM compared with baseline and a lower heart rate throughout positive EIM than the other conditions. Overall, these findings suggest that music evoking positive emotions can boost visuospatial WM performance. This is the first study to explore cognitive performance after EIM and physiological responses to musical stimuli simultaneously, which may have important practical implications since we engage in cognitively demanding activities after listening to music that could evoke happy or sad emotions.

The effect of dichotic music presentation on ratings of emotional facial expressions

Music has a cross-modal influence on the emotional appraisal of pictures, probably due to a misattribution of emotion from music to the visually perceived images. Moreover, dichotic listening studies have demonstrated a left-ear (right-hemisphere) advantage for processing emotional and/or musical stimuli. The present study investigated the role of laterality in cross-modal affect misattribution: that is, whether visual judgments of emotion would be affected differently depending on which ear was presented with music via the dichotic listening task. Participants rated the emotionality of happy, sad, and neutral faces while listening to happy or sad music in one ear and white noise in the other. Baseline ratings without music were used as a comparison to see whether and how emotionality judgments shifted in the music conditions. As predicted, the results showed that happy music played to the left ear had a stronger cross-modal influence on ratings of sad faces than the same music played to the right ear. Furthermore, sad music affected the ratings of all faces regardless of whether it was played to the left or right ear. These results do not fully align with any given lateralized model of emotion processing, suggesting that other factors such as negativity bias may play a role.

Where music meets medicine:

The first Science and Sounds conference in Germany took place in early September 2022. Attendees were provided with an overview of standards and significant results of scientific research on the use of music as therapeutic intervention in medical settings. An international faculty of experts from USA, Finland, and Europe presented a scientific program ranging from definitions in MusicMedicine and Music Therapy, latest results from brain research about important impacts of musical stimuli on neuronal networks -explaining therapeutic results as well as directions for occupational care for musicians. General aspects and global developments in furthering implementation of interdisciplinary approaches in research and application including enhancement of professional environment in health care institutions were discussed and practically demonstrated during clinical excursions to UKE facilities. This article will provide an overview of the conference and will highlight our opening of the new Centre.

Synchronizing with the rhythm: Infant neural entrainment to complex musical and speech stimuli.

Neural entrainment is defined as the process whereby brain activity, and more specifically neuronal oscillations measured by EEG, synchronize with exogenous stimulus rhythms. Despite the importance that neural oscillations have assumed in recent years in the field of auditory neuroscience and speech perception, in human infants the oscillatory brain rhythms and their synchronization with complex auditory exogenous rhythms are still relatively unexplored. In the present study, we investigate infant neural entrainment to complex non-speech (musical) and speech rhythmic stimuli; we provide a developmental analysis to explore potential similarities and differences between infants' and adults' ability to entrain to the stimuli; and we analyze the associations between infants' neural entrainment measures and the concurrent level of development. 25 8-month-old infants were included in the study. Their EEG signals were recorded while they passively listened to non-speech and speech rhythmic stimuli modulated at different rates. In addition, Bayley Scales were administered to all infants to assess their cognitive, language, and social-emotional development. Neural entrainment to the incoming rhythms was measured in the form of peaks emerging from the EEG spectrum at frequencies corresponding to the rhythm envelope. Analyses of the EEG spectrum revealed clear responses above the noise floor at frequencies corresponding to the rhythm envelope, suggesting that - similarly to adults - infants at 8 months of age were capable of entraining to the incoming complex auditory rhythms. Infants' measures of neural entrainment were associated with concurrent measures of cognitive and social-emotional development.

Effect of Indian Music as an Auditory Stimulus on Physiological Measures of Stress, Anxiety, Cardiovascular and Autonomic Responses in Humans-A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Among the different anthropogenic stimuli humans are exposed to, the psychological and cardiovascular effects of auditory stimuli are less understood. This study aims to explore the possible range of change after a single session of auditory stimulation with three different ‘Modes’ of musical stimuli (MS) on anxiety, biomarkers of stress, and cardiovascular parameters among healthy young individuals. In this randomized control trial, 140 healthy young adults, aged 18–30 years, were randomly assigned to three MS groups (Mode/Raga Miyan ki Todi, Malkauns, and Puriya) and one control group (natural sounds). The outcome measurements of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, salivary alpha-amylase (sAA), salivary cortisol (sCort), blood pressure, and heart rate variability (HRV) were collected at three time points: before (M1), during (M2), and after the intervention (M3). State anxiety was reduced significantly with raga Puriya (p = 0.018), followed by raga Malkauns and raga Miyan Ki Todi. All the groups showed a significant reduction in sAA. Raga Miyan ki Todi and Puriya caused an arousal effect (as evidenced by HRV) during the intervention and significant relaxation after the intervention (both p < 0.005). Raga Malkauns and the control group had a sustained rise in parasympathetic activity over 30 min. Future studies should try to use other modes and features to develop a better scientific foundation for the use of Indian music in medicine.

On the Relative Importance of Visual and Spatial Audio Rendering on VR Immersion

A study was performed using a virtual environment to investigate the relative importance of spatial audio fidelity and video resolution on perceived audio-visual quality and immersion. Subjects wore a head-mounted display and headphones and were presented with a virtual environment featuring music and speech stimuli using three levels each of spatial audio quality and video resolution. Spatial audio was rendered monaurally, binaurally with head-tracking, and binaurally with head-tracking and room acoustic rendering. Video was rendered at resolutions of 0.5 megapixels per eye, 1.5 megapixels per eye, and 2.5 megapixels per eye. Results showed that both video resolution and spatial audio rendering had a statistically significant effect on both immersion and audio-visual quality. Most strikingly, the results showed that under the conditions that were tested in the experiment, the addition of room acoustic rendering to head-tracked binaural audio had the same improvement on immersion as increasing the video resolution five-fold, from 0.5 megapixels per eye to 2.5 megapixels per eye.

Effect of Algorithmic Music Listening on Cardiac Autonomic Nervous System Activity: An Exploratory, Randomized Crossover Study.

It is proven that music listening can have a therapeutic impact in many clinical fields. However, to assume a curative value, musical stimuli should have a therapeutic logic. This study aimed at assessing short-term effects of algorithmic music on cardiac autonomic nervous system activity. Twenty-two healthy subjects underwent a crossover study including random listening to relaxing and activating algorithmic music. Electrocardiogram (ECG) and non-invasive arterial blood pressure were continuously recorded and were later analyzed to measure Heart Rate (HR) mean, HR variability and baroreflex sensitivity (BRS). Statistical analysis was performed using a general linear model, testing for carryover, period and treatment effects. Relaxing tracks decreased HR and increased root mean square of successive squared differences of normal-to-normal (NN) intervals, proportion of interval differences of successive NN intervals greater than 50 ms, low-frequency (LF) and high-frequency (HF) power and BRS. Activating tracks caused almost no change or an opposite effect in the same variables. The difference between the effects of the two stimuli was statistically significant in all these variables. No difference was found in the standard deviation of normal-to-normal RR intervals, LFpower in normalized units and LFpower/HFpower variables. The study suggests that algorithmic relaxing music increases cardiac vagal modulation and tone. These results open interesting perspectives in various clinical areas.

Effect of music stimuli on corticomuscular coupling and the brain functional connectivity network

Music is widely used as an auxiliary treatment for the recovery of motor function and emotional regulation in patients with epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and stroke. It also has certain positive impacts on physiology and psychology during physical exercise. This study investigates the functional corticomuscular coupling (FCMC) relationship and the changes in the brain functional connection mode in normal people in response to music stimuli when the right hand continuously outputs grip power. Electroencephalography (EEG) and electromyography (EMG) tests are synchronously performed on normal participants with music stimuli, with audiobook stimuli, and without stimulation. The similarity, causality, and direction of the signals are calculated by EEG-EMG coherence and transfer entropy (TE), and the brain functional connectivity network is established to analyze the changes in the coupling relationship between regions of the brain and between different regions of the brain and muscles. It is found that, for the CP2, FC2, and four muscle channels in this study, music stimuli reduce EEG-EMG coherence. In addition, the characteristics of corticomuscular TE and the brain functional connectivity network with music stimuli are quite different from other groups. This paper explores the effects of music stimuli on FCMC from the perspective of physiological electrical signal analysis, which may have a positive impact on future studies of music therapy in neurorehabilitation.

Musical stimuli and performance of university students in a deep pool running protocol

This study aimed to analyze the effects of musical stimuli on university performance through heart rate and Rate of Perceived Exertion as a function of a running protocol in deep water. The sample consisted of 18 women aged between 18 and 30 years (23.44 ± 3.42) from Mossoró/RN. Participants were assessed on two separate days, one day with musical stimulation and the other without the stimulus. At the end of each stage reached within the test, the Heart Rate and Rate of Perceived Exertion of each participant were measured before the beginning of the next stage. To compare the performance variables with and without musical stimuli, the paired “t” test. p&lt;0.05. The results showed that they do not present relevant differences in Heart Rate and Rate of Perceived Exertion with and without music, except in stage 1 (p=0.045) and stage 3 (p=0.048) for Heart Rate. It is concluded that the use of music as a stimulus in the performance of university students through a running protocol in a deep pool is a valid strategy for reaching maximum effort or continuity at a moderate/high intensity in the aquatic environment.

Anhedonia symptoms: The assessment of brain functional mechanism following music stimuli using functional magnetic resonance imaging

PurposeThis study aimed to investigate the effect of music stimulation on the brain functional mechanism of depressed patients with anhedonia symptoms using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). MethodsParticipants in this study included 20 healthy subjects as the control group, 25 subjects with depression and no anhedonia as the intervention group A, and 24 subjects with depression and anhedonia as the intervention group B. The safely emotional stimulation was done by Iranian music. To investigate the effect of music therapy on the brain, a task including 50 tracks of 12 s Iranian music (traditional and pop) was used. Finally, the data were analyzed using SPM Toolbox in MATLAB software. ResultsThe results showed that brain patterns in depressed patients with and without anhedonia could be distinguished based on positive and negative musical stimuli (p < 0.05). Important fMRI biomarker such as effective connectivity strength related to the fronto-limbic network, including the supragenual ACC, subgenual ACC, AMYG, and FFG were evaluated in depressed patients with anhedonia. ConclusionThis was the first study to investigate the neural circuits involved in music-related emotional processing in patients with anhedonia symptoms. These findings could help advance neurological understandings of anhedonia and suggest new treatments.

Brain Response of Major Depressive Disorder Patients to Emotionally Positive and Negative Music.

Depression is characterized by poor emotion regulation that makes it difficult to escape the effects of emotional pain, but the neuromodulation behind these symptoms is still unclear. This study investigated the neural mechanism of emotional state-related responses during music stimuli in participants with major depressive disorder (MDD) compared to never-depressed (ND) controls. A novel two-level feature selection method, integrating recursive feature elimination based on support vector machine (SVM-RFE) and random forest algorithm (RF), was proposed to screen emotional recognition brain regions (ERBRs). On this basis, the differences of functional connectivity (FC) were systematically analyzed by two-sample t-test. The results demonstrate that ND participants show eight pairs of FCs with a significant difference between positive emotional music stimuli (pEMS) versus negative emotional music stimuli (nEMS) in 15 ERBRs of MDD, but the participants with MDD show one pair of significant difference in FC. The decreased number reflects the fuzzy response to positive and negative emotions in MDD, which appears to arise from obstacle to emotional cognition and regulation. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in FC between MDDs and NDs under pEMS, but a significant difference was detected between the two groups under nEMS (p < 0.01), revealing a 'bias' against the negative state in MDD. The current study may help to better comprehend the abnormal evolution from normal to depression and inform the utilization of pEMS in formal treatment for depression.

Recognition memory in movie scenes: the soundtrack induces mood-coherent bias, but not through mood induction

ABSTRACT Several studies have employed music to affect various tasks through mood induction procedures. In this perspective, music’s emotional content coherently affects the listeners’ mood, which, in turn, affects performance. On the contrary, in film music cognition, schema theories suggest that music adds semantic information that interacts with the viewers’ previous knowledge and influences visual information processing. As in this interpretation the viewers’ mood is not deeply considered, it is not clear the extent to which music effects are also due to its power of affecting the viewers’ mood or rather a mere cognitive priming-like influence. An experiment (N = 169) on how music biases the recognition memory of a scene was built comparing semantic and emotional effects of soundtracks differing in valence (happy vs scary) during a recognition task. The results show that 1) music affected the viewers’ mood coherently with its valence, 2) music led to falsely recognise unseen objects as truly present when coherent with the soundtrack valence; and 3) the effect of music on the biased remembering was not mediated by the viewers’ mood, thus suggesting a strong interpretation of the schema theory in film music processing. Finally, a methodological reflection is provided on the issue of the manipulation check in experiments that employ musical stimuli to assess their influence on cognition.

Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Entropy in EEGS during Music Stimulation of Alzheimer's Disease Patients with Different Degrees of Dementia.

Music has become a common adjunctive treatment for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in recent years. Because Alzheimer’s disease can be classified into different degrees of dementia according to its severity (mild, moderate, severe), this study is to investigate whether there are differences in brain response to music stimulation in AD patients with different degrees of dementia. Seventeen patients with mild-to-moderate dementia, sixteen patients with severe dementia, and sixteen healthy elderly participants were selected as experimental subjects. The nonlinear characteristics of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals were extracted from 64-channel EEG signals acquired before, during, and after music stimulation. The results showed the following. (1) At the temporal level, both at the whole brain area and sub-brain area levels, the EEG responses of the mild-to-moderate patients showed statistical differences from those of the severe patients (p < 0.05). The nonlinear characteristics during music stimulus, including permutation entropy (PmEn), sample entropy (SampEn), and Lempel–Ziv complexity (LZC), were significantly higher in both mild-to-moderate patients and healthy controls compared to pre-stimulation, while it was significantly lower in severe patients. (2) At the spatial level, the EEG responses of the mild-to-moderate patients and the severe patients showed statistical differences (p < 0.05), showing that as the degree of dementia progressed, fewer pairs of EEG characteristic showed significant differences among brain regions under music stimulation. In this paper, we found that AD patients with different degrees of dementia had different EEG responses to music stimulation. Our study provides a possible explanation for this discrepancy in terms of the pathological progression of AD and music cognitive hierarchy theory. Our study has adjunctive implications for clinical music therapy in AD., potentially allowing for more targeted treatment. Meanwhile, the variations in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients in response to music stimulation might be a model for investigating the neural mechanism of music perception.

Robotic Verticalization plus Music Therapy in Chronic Disorders of Consciousness: Promising Results from a Pilot Study.

Background: Music stimulation is considered a valuable form of intervention in disorders of consciousness (DoC); for instance, verticalization may improve motor and cognitive recovery. Our purpose is to investigate the effects of a novel rehabilitative approach combining robotic verticalization training (RVT) with personalized music stimulation in people with DoC. Methods: Sixteen subjects affected by minimally conscious state due to traumatic brain lesions who attended our Intensive Neuro-Rehabilitation Unit were enrolled in this randomized trial. They received either music robotic verticalization (MRV) using the Erigo device plus a personalized music playlist or only RVT without music stimuli. Each treatment was performed 2 times a week for 8 consecutive weeks in addition to standard neurorehabilitation. Results: We found significant improvements in all patients’ outcomes in the experimental group (who received MRV): Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R) (p < 0.01), Level of Cognitive Functioning (LCF) (p < 0.02), Functional Independence Measure (FIM) (p < 0.03), Functional Communication Scale (FCS) (p < 0.007), Trunk Control Test (TCT) (p = 0.05). Significant differences between the two groups were also found in the main outcome measure CRS-R (p < 0.01) but not for TCT and FIM. Conclusions: Our study supports the safety and effectiveness of RVT with the Erigo device in chronic MCS, and the achievement of better outcomes when RVT is combined with music stimulation.

Visual and auditory stimulation for patients in the intensive care unit: A mixed-method study

ObjectivesTo determine what type (e.g., television, photographs, music, etc), content (e.g., nature scenes, family members, etc), and duration of visual and auditory stimuli should be provided to intensive care unit patients during their hospitalisation. Research methodology and designThis mixed-methods study followed an exploratory-descriptive design. In total, 31 participants were interviewed: 19 were former critically ill patients in the intensive care unit and 12 were nursing experts, all from a university hospital in Switzerland. Based on current practice, patients and nurses were familiar with receiving and providing television, photographs, radio, and musical stimuli, with no specific exposure to virtual reality, aside from that in their personal lives. Data were collected from the former patients using structured interviews, whereas semi-structured interviews were used for the nursing experts. FindingsOverall, patient and expert opinions aligned well; both groups agreed that receiving visual and/or auditory stimuli would benefit patients. Photographs, television, and virtual reality were the visual stimuli most chosen by the patients, with an emphasis on nature-focused content. When appropriate, audio matching the content should be provided alongside the visual stimuli to act as a distraction from the hospital environment. Visual stimuli should not exceed 10–15 min, while auditory stimuli should not exceed one hour. ConclusionSensory overload and deprivation are common problems in the intensive care unit with negative effects on patient outcomes. Based on patient and expert opinions, visual and auditory stimuli are desired by patients and could help address these issues.

Musical consonance in simple, static auditory stimuli and perceived pleasantness: The role of musical interval, harmonicity, and stimulus duration

Many investigations on the emotional responses to music focus on the use of music pieces that contain a plethora of characteristics. This multitude of characteristics hampers the detection of the specific acoustic properties that contribute to the evoked emotions. In the present study, we were interested in the potential contribution of specific acoustical parameters of consonance to induced emotions. We, therefore, manipulated consonance by creating auditory stimuli that lacked the complexity of music by being very well defined in terms of their musical and acoustical characteristics. Specifically, Stimulus Set A was manipulated as a function of musical interval and harmonicity, with frequency components that followed and did not follow the harmonic series, and musical intervals that were consonant or dissonant, while Stimulus Set C was based on a previously utilized consonance manipulation in musical pieces. A duration manipulation was also included given the changes that might occur as a stimulus unfolds in time. Using pleasantness ratings, we found that consonant musical intervals—usually perceived as pleasant—were rated as unpleasant when the component tones contained inharmonic frequencies, while dissonant intervals remained unaffected by harmonicity. These results demonstrate, for the first time, that acoustical and psychoacoustical manipulations of consonance interact and contribute to listeners’ pleasantness ratings. Α trend was observed for the duration with stimuli becoming more unpleasant as their duration increased. Subsequent qualitative comparison of our stimulus manipulation with musical excerpts showed that our stimuli were, in general, judged as less pleasant and that consonant musical excerpts were judged as more pleasant as duration increased, thus potentially pointing to the role of music completion.