Pleasure plays the music: visual attention and expertise

Listening to music has powerful effects on boost emotional and cognitive processes. It is still an open question whether cognitive improvements might depend on specific musical piece features (Mozart effect) or on the pleasure that we feel while listening. The general aim was to evaluate the attentional blink effect in music experts and non-experts (Musicians and Non-Musicians). The Mozart Sonata K448 was compared to highly pleasant musical pieces, self-selected by the participants. While listening to music, a rapid serial visual presentation task (RSVP) was used to tap into temporal attentional mechanisms. The results showed (at lag 240ms) a better performance during both the Sonata K448 and the self-selected pieces. Furthermore, the effect of pleasure varied with musical expertise. The higher the perceived pleasantness was for Musicians the higher the performance was accurate. These findings highlight the role of musical pleasure on cognitive processing. Our results emphasize the pleasure feelings evoked by music, even in experts, in affecting attention by boosting positive emotions and reward.