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 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, AS songs significantly influenced a range of emotions: power, sadness, peacefulness, joy, nostalgia, transcendence, and wonder (p <.001). JHC elicited more tension*** and transcendence***; however, increases in state-anxiety (STAI) interacted with JHC, reducing transcendence ***. Familiarity increased tension***, sadness**, and nostalgia* and decreased tenderness**. Dispositional positive emotion (DPES) predicted power***, peacefulness***, transcendence*, wonder***, and tenderness**. Joint increases in DPES and AS led to more tenderness**. Positive mood (PANAS) predicted nostalgia* and tenderness*, and negative mood decreased wonder**. DASS-anxiety heightened tension** and sadness***, and it interacted with condition to increase tension** and with familiarity*** to increase sadness. DASS-stress predicted peacefulness and transcendence. Absorption in music (AIMS) and it’s interaction with positive mood increased joy***. Overall, AS music enhanced emotional responses, except for tension. Next steps include analyzing condition-level emotions on acute, subjective and enduring effects, as well as electrophysiological data. ***p<.001, **p<.01, *p<.05

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Audition