Emotion induction through music: peripheral correlates of hedonic valence and arousal during a passive listening task

Abstract

Music is a very interesting experimental stimulus due to its universal capacity to induce emotions. Empirical studies have mainly focused on self-reports and central measures effects, with only a few works exploring peripheral psychophysiological correlates. In this study we use electrodermal activity (EDA) and facial electromyography (EMG) in zygomatic and corrugator with the aim to investigate several peripheral mechanisms of hedonic valence and arousal. A sample of 50 healthy participants (25 women) listened and rated 42 excerpts from FMSS (14 of each category: unpleasant, neutral, pleasant) while their psychophysiological responses were continuously recorded. Results showed the reliability of EDA and facial EMG to measure arousal and valence, respectively. Both EDA and zygomatic activity were larger during pleasant vs. unpleasant and neutral stimuli, whereas corrugator showed higher activity for unpleasant music. Taken together, our findings provide additional evidences of the capacity of music to induce emotions in laboratory contexts, opening new avenues regarding plausible interventions based on music in pathologies with underlying emotion deregulatory processes.