Schedule of Events | Symposia

Sketchpad Series

PRoMiSS: Psychedelics and the Role of Music in Set and Setting

Poster Session F - Tuesday, April 1, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Riddhima Chandra¹ (rchand23@jh.edu), David Rosen¹, Frederick Barrett^1,2,3; ¹Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, ²Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, ³Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Music is pivotal to the “setting” of psychedelic experiences, however, there is an absence of evidence-based music selection protocols. Personally-tuned, autobiographically salient (AS) playlists may evoke stronger emotional responses compared to standardized playlists. This series of studies explores the role of personalized music in psychedelic experiences. In Study 1, a within-subject, non-drug, healthy-participant pilot, subjects experienced four conditions: AS, Johns Hopkins Classic (JHC), and two others. Participants’ EEGs, physiology, and behavioral data were collected, including song-level emotion ratings using the Geneva Music Emotion Scale. Study 2 is an open-label, high dose psilocybin study that examines the interaction of music and psilocybin. Using linear mixed-effect models, we determined AS significantly predicted increases in positive emotions, including joy, tenderness, and nostalgia (p < .0001), but JHC elicited greater tension (p < .0001). Participants reported higher familiarity for songs in AS (92.7%) compared to JHC (18.3%). Familiarity predicted transcendence (p = .0008) and power (p = .017). Interactions revealed decreased joy when JHC was presented first (p = .0055), and increased joy when songs in JHC were AS. Dispositional traits, absorption in music scale (AIMS) and dispositional positive emotion (DPES), were consistent predictors of stronger emotion ratings. Autobiographically-salient music was predictive of enhanced emotional responses. Dispositional traits, playlist, and familiarity also play a key role in music emotion ratings. Next steps include investigation of the relationship between song-level emotions and the acute and enduring effects survey data, as well as analyzing EEG, physiological measures, and quantitative music features. Preliminary EEG results forthcoming.

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Audition