Physiological measurement of the arousing effect of bass amplification in music

Arnal L, Epain N, Mouterde T, Wallerich M, Corteel E. Physiological measurement of the arousing effect of bass amplification in music. In: Convention Paper. Audio Engineering Society; 2024. Paper 10183. Available from: https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=22686

@inproceedings{Arnal2024_22686,
  author = {Arnal, Luc and Epain, Nicolas and Mouterde, Thomas and Wallerich, Mérové and Corteel, Etienne},
  title = {{Physiological measurement of the arousing effect of bass amplification in music}},
  note = {Paper 10183},
  year = {2024},
  month = sep,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  url = {https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=22686}
}

TY  - CPAPER
TI  - Physiological measurement of the arousing effect of bass amplification in music
AU  - Arnal, Luc
AU  - Epain, Nicolas
AU  - Mouterde, Thomas
AU  - Wallerich, Mérové
AU  - Corteel, Etienne
M1  - Paper 10183
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/09/27
UR  - https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=22686
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - Musics amazing ability to evoke emotions has been the focus of various scientific studies, with researchers testing how different musical structures or interpretations impacted the emotions induced in the listener. However, in the context of amplified music, little is known about the influence of the sound reinforcement system. In this study, we investigate whether the amount of low-frequency amplification produced by a sound system impacts the listeners arousal. We organized two listening experiments whereby we measured the skin conductance of the participants while they were listening to music excerpts with different levels of low-frequency amplification. Our results indicate that an increase in the level of bass is correlated with a small but measurable rise in electrodermal activity, which is correlated with arousal. In addition this effect seems to depend on the nature of the music.
ER  -