Using Pupillometry to Investigate the Effect of Meditation on Musical Listening

Abstract

Music and meditation are often used to enhance wellbeing (Innes et al., 2018; Eckhardt & Dinsmore, 2012). While existing research examines the cognitive and physiological benefits of musical listening and meditation independently, interactions between the two remain to be further explored. The present study explores the influence of meditation on engagement in musical listening itself. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: meditation, stretching, or program notes. Based on their assignment, participants were first led through an audio-guided session of either focused attention meditation, gentle chair stretches, or program notes. Next, all participants listened to a seven-minute piece of music while pupillometry was recorded. Pupil size is known to index both bodily states such as arousal and cognitive processes such as attention (Fink et al., 2022). After, participants answered a series of questions about their demographics, musical genre preferences, and ability to be absorbed by music. Finally, they completed a recognition memory task that asked participants to identify excerpts as either part of the music they had recently listened to or foils (music that was not part of the original music), with pupillometry again measured. We hypothesized that meditation would increase musical engagement as indicated by greater intersubject synchrony of pupil size changes and better performance on the recognition memory task. Moreover, we hypothesized that pupil size changes will differentiate heard passages from foils, even in cases where participants do not respond correctly. These results will shed new light on musical engagement, with potential applications for performance practice and clinical interventions.