Schedule of Events | Symposia

Emotional Congruence of Musical Primes and Target Words Between and Within Valence: An N400 Study

Poster Session D - Monday, March 31, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Anna Gruzas¹ (annag721@gmail.com), Alina Davison¹, Takako Fujioka¹; ¹Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, Department of Music, Stanford University

Semantic information in music has been shown to perceptually prime the interpretation of target words, with their congruency influencing the N400 ERP. For instance, listening to “happy” music followed by viewing a “sad” word elicits greater negativity. This study examined whether N400 effects occur with contrasting emotional intensity levels within the same valence category (e.g., “gravely sad” vs. “mildly sad”). EEGs were recorded from 18 young adults as they heard 8-10 second non-lyrical music excerpts paired with words, presented in two block types: (1) between-category context blocks, mixing happy and sad stimuli, and (2) within-category blocks, mixing stimuli at varying emotional intensities within the same valence. Negativity between 340-654 ms at centro-parietal electrode sites showed the main effect of Congruence, as the more negative amplitude occurred for incongruent pairings compared to congruent ones (F(1,17)=5.68, p=.029). The Context x Congruence interaction was significant (F(1,17)=5.46, p=.032) due to the enhanced congruent vs. incongruent difference for the between-category context (p=.018), while the contrast was not significant for the within-category context (p=.756). However, the interaction Intensity x Congruence was significant (F(1,17)=4.69, p=.045). This means that when the musically expressed emotion was intense, the difference was exaggerated regardless of the context, but not vice versa. These findings indicate that musical priming can enhance the intensity contrast, and that listening to music over several seconds is advantageous for encoding the nuanced levels of emotional expression.

Topic Area: EMOTION & SOCIAL: Emotion-cognition interactions