The Embodied Mind in Music Listening
Wolfgang Tschacher, Steven Greenwood, Christian Weining, Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann, Chandrasekhar Ramakrishnan, Martin Tröndle
Journal of Consciousness Studies April 1, 2026 DOI: 10.53765/20512201.33.3.044 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 690 |
| Population | Participants attending public concerts of classical and contemporary chamber music |
| Measures | rating scales (not specified) |
| Key findings | Experiences of beauty and high-valence aesthetic emotions were associated with sympathetic activation and attenuated parasympathetic activation, as measured by cardiac, respiratory, and skin-conductance responses during concerts. |
Abstract
A study of participants attending public concerts that staged classical and contemporary chamber music had the goal to analyse the associations between self-reported experiences and physiological responses, hence addressing a core question of embodied cognition. A sample of 690 participants was recruited, whose physiological signals were recorded with wearable sensors during concerts. After the concerts, music segments were individually presented to participants. The segments were excerpts selected from the concert just attended. Eight segments were shown to each participant in a stimulated-recall procedure, and the participant's experiences of the music in the segment were obtained using rating scales. Cardiac, respiratory, and skinconductance responses were found linked with varying aspects of segment experience. Experiences of beauty and high valence of aesthetic emotions were associated with sympathetic activation and attenuated parasympathetic activation. We discuss the implications of empirical mind–body–music findings within the philosophy of mind and assess their compatibility with materialist, dualist, and emergentist conceptions of the mind–body debate and the science of consciousness.