Physiological Responses to Musical Stimuli - an Initial Investigation

This work-in-progress paper presents findings from a pilot study (N = 30), conducted as part of the Horizon Europe AMPLIFY project, investigating physiological responses to music. Participants listened to two counterbalanced musical excerpts while heart rate, electrodermal activity (EDA) and skin temperature were recorded via EmotiBit™ wearable sensors. Of 489 statistically significant individual deviations from baseline (Bonferroni-corrected Mann-Whitney U), 33 were shared across multiple participants. To check whether these occurred at the same instant, temporal analysis of the shared deviations identified 82 different episodes in which multiple participants deviated simultaneously. Comparing audio features during these episodes to the remainder of each musical excerpt yielded 27 Bonferroni-significant associations (Cohen's d up to 1.62). Broadband EDA and skin conductance response frequency emerged as the most responsive physiological measures, showing strong correlations with spectral brightness and timbral features of the musical passages.