Psilocybin and Contrasting Musical Compositions: Effects on Music-Evoked Emotional Responses in Healthy Adults
- 1National Institute of Mental Health
Abstract
Music is a central component of psychedelic settings, yet little experimental work has examined how psilocybin and musical composition influence music-evoked emotional responses in healthy volunteers. This exploratory, double-blind, placebo-controlled study assessed these effects during the plateau phase of psilocybin and the corresponding time window in placebo sessions following oral administration of psilocybin (0.26 mg/kg) or placebo. The study consisted of two parts. In Part 1 (n = 19), a pilot stage, the first half of participants rated music-induced affective valence for eight compositions representing different genres/subgenres (Rock/Punk, Metal/Industrial Metal, Metal/Industrial Metal, Classical/Baroque, Electronic/Dub, Folk/Nordic Folk, Electronic/Techno, Electronic/Trance, Electronic/Psytrance) using a visual analogue scale (VAS). Based on Part 1, the classical composition with the highest overall affective valence and the psytrance composition with the largest psilocybin-placebo contrast (i.e., the composition most responsive to psilocybin) were selected for Part 2 (n = 17), in which the second half of participants assessed emotional responses to music using the Geneva Emotional Music Scale (GEMS-9). Psilocybin increased wonder, transcendence, and joyful activation across both contrasting compositions. Relative to each other, the classical composition elicited greater peacefulness, tenderness, and nostalgia, whereas the psytrance composition elicited greater tension across both psilocybin and placebo conditions. A composition x condition interaction was observed for sadness: under psilocybin, sadness increased during the classical composition and decreased during the psytrance composition. These findings suggest that psilocybin and contrasting musical compositions independently influence different aspects of music-evoked emotional responses, with limited interaction effects, and point to potential implications for protocol design and music selection in psychedelic settings.
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BibTeX
@misc{dojcanova2026psilocybin,
title = {{Psilocybin and Contrasting Musical Compositions: Effects on Music-Evoked Emotional Responses in Healthy Adults}},
author = {D. Dojcanova and F. Tyls and M. Nikolic and T. Novak and V. Viktorin and A. Bravermanova and M. Viktorinova and R. Androvicova and V. Andrashko and J. Korcak and P. Zach and J. Horacek and M. Brunovsky and T. Palenicek},
howpublished = {medRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.09.26362648},
url = {https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.09.26362648v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Psilocybin and Contrasting Musical Compositions: Effects on Music-Evoked Emotional Responses in Healthy Adults
AU - D. Dojcanova
AU - F. Tyls
AU - M. Nikolic
AU - T. Novak
AU - V. Viktorin
AU - A. Bravermanova
AU - M. Viktorinova
AU - R. Androvicova
AU - V. Andrashko
AU - J. Korcak
AU - P. Zach
AU - J. Horacek
AU - M. Brunovsky
AU - T. Palenicek
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/09
PB - medRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.09.26362648
UR - https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.09.26362648v1
AB - Music is a central component of psychedelic settings, yet little experimental work has examined how psilocybin and musical composition influence music-evoked emotional responses in healthy volunteers. This exploratory, double-blind, placebo-controlled study assessed these effects during the plateau phase of psilocybin and the corresponding time window in placebo sessions following oral administration of psilocybin (0.26 mg/kg) or placebo. The study consisted of two parts. In Part 1 (n = 19), a pilot stage, the first half of participants rated music-induced affective valence for eight compositions representing different genres/subgenres (Rock/Punk, Metal/Industrial Metal, Metal/Industrial Metal, Classical/Baroque, Electronic/Dub, Folk/Nordic Folk, Electronic/Techno, Electronic/Trance, Electronic/Psytrance) using a visual analogue scale (VAS). Based on Part 1, the classical composition with the highest overall affective valence and the psytrance composition with the largest psilocybin-placebo contrast (i.e., the composition most responsive to psilocybin) were selected for Part 2 (n = 17), in which the second half of participants assessed emotional responses to music using the Geneva Emotional Music Scale (GEMS-9). Psilocybin increased wonder, transcendence, and joyful activation across both contrasting compositions. Relative to each other, the classical composition elicited greater peacefulness, tenderness, and nostalgia, whereas the psytrance composition elicited greater tension across both psilocybin and placebo conditions. A composition x condition interaction was observed for sadness: under psilocybin, sadness increased during the classical composition and decreased during the psytrance composition. These findings suggest that psilocybin and contrasting musical compositions independently influence different aspects of music-evoked emotional responses, with limited interaction effects, and point to potential implications for protocol design and music selection in psychedelic settings.
ER -