Alessandro Ansani

The proliferation of AI-generated content raises the question of whether beliefs about a stimulus’s origin alter emotional responses to it. Across two studies, we conceptually replicated and extended Marini et al. (2024) by presenting heterosexual participants (Study 1: N = 705; Study 2: N = 261) with erotic (Studies 1 and 2) and non-erotic (Study 1) images from validated databases (NAPS and NAPS ERO). Unbeknownst to participants, all stimuli were real photographs, each randomly labelled as “Photograph” or “AI-generated”. Participants rated sexual arousal, enticement, and valence for each image, and later judged their agreement with the labels. Images labelled as AI-generated received lower affective ratings, but this effect was small and driven primarily by male participants. Gender differences were robust yet context dependent: males yielded more robust differences, partially driven by a higher baseline arousal response. However, image of couples (Study 2), that females rated as more arousing, narrowed the gender gap found in Study 1. Critically, the effect of the labels interacted with participant’s own beliefs: photograph-labelled images were rated more arousing than AI-labelled only when participants’ subsequent belief ratings were congruent with the label, and the difference between labels reversed when opposite beliefs were reported, suggesting a complex relationship between emotion and reality beliefs. Individual-level differences in AI attitudes, pornography consumption, and sexual activity showed no reliable modulation of the labels effect. These findings suggest that the anti-AI bias is best understood as a belief-sensitive authenticity effect rather than a uniform response to AI labels, with implications for research using synthetic stimuli and for policies mandating disclosure of AI-generated content.

Aging is related to changes in the usage of emotion regulation strategies due to shifting motivational goals, life experience, and declines in physiological, cognitive, and social resources. Music supports the facilitation of music mood regulation strategies (i.e., Entertainment, Revival, Strong Sensation, Diversion, Discharge, Mental Work, and Solace), but age-related changes in their usage and underlying psychological functions remain underexplored across adulthood. The current cross-sectional study addresses this gap by having 250 participants (M age = 40.88 years, SD age = 17.78, range = 18 - 87) complete the Brief Music in Mood Regulation Scale (Saarikallio, 2012) and experimenter-created items exploring how much the aforementioned strategies are facilitated through serving Bodily, Cognitive, or Social functions. Regression models showed that older participants use less music for mood regulation. This trend was observed in all strategies except Revival, whose use remained stable over time. Linear Mixed-Effect models showed that music resonated in participants’ bodies to facilitate Entertainment and Revival, while it helped with cognitive thought and emotion processing for Mental Work. The remaining strategies were underpinned by both Bodily and Cognitive functions. No age differences were observed here. These results contribute to the understanding of music-based mood regulation and promote music as a psychoeducational, health, and wellbeing tool for all ages.

Dancing together to music is a common social activity in which movement coordination emerges from the interplay of interpersonal relationships and a shared musical environment. While previous work on dyadic dance movement has focused on individual differences, third-party judgments of synchrony, and disentangling partner- from music- driven coordination, relational and situational determinants of coordination have received less attention. This motion capture study investigated how social affiliation and agency over the music influence movement characteristics and social coordination in young people. A total of 164 adolescents danced in dyads with both a friend and a stranger, and to self- and researcher-selected music in a counterbalanced design. Extracted kinematic features included head and hand movement magnitude, movement complexity, fluidity, interpersonal distance, mutual orientation, and synchrony. Results showed greater, more complex and less fluid movements when participants danced with friends compared to strangers. Head and hand movement magnitudes were larger for self-selected than researcher-selected music, but only when self-selected music followed researcher-selected music. Friends also exhibited higher interpersonal synchrony, danced closer, and looked more towards each other than strangers. These findings shed light on how social and contextual factors shape dance behaviour in adolescence.

Music artists play a crucial role in shaping both regional and global sonic trends. While technological and cultural shifts are often credited with driving musical change, less is known about how an artist’s age influences stylistic evolution. Here, we examine how acousticness, that is, the extent to which a track features acoustic instrumentation, varies across an artist’s career. Using data from Spotify’s API, we analyse 45,478 tracks from 190 artists with a Generalised Additive Mixed Model (GAMM) to assess the relationship between acousticness and artist age, controlling for release year and genre. Results reveal a consistent positive association between artist age and acousticness, with artists tending to produce more acoustic music as they age, irrespective of their genre. However, the release year shows a strong negative effect, with newer music increasingly characterised by fewer acoustic features, likely reflecting broader industry trends such as digital production and evolving listener preferences. Our findings suggest a dynamic interplay between individual artistic development and external cultural forces, where ageing artists gravitate towards more organic sounds, even as popular music trends continue to favour synthetic production.

Background: Depression, anxiety and work-related stress affect a significant number of adults disrupting their productivity, ability to function and attend work. These highly comorbid disorders tend to be difficult to treat effectively, and more information about integrative treatment approaches is needed. This study investigates the effectiveness of music therapy in treating depression-related disorders. Methods/design: The intervention is targeted at people of 18–65 years of age who are in employment, in their studies, temporarily unemployed, on short-term sick leave or rehabilitation allowance and suffer from depression-related disorders, which include one or several of the following: depression, anxiety, work-related stress or exhaustion. The interventions applied are Integrative Improvisational Music Therapy (IIMT) with or without the additional elements of music listening and vibroacoustic treatment. All sessions will begin with a preparative exercise called Resonance Frequency Breathing to enhance the effect of the therapy. All participants will receive the intervention for 6 weeks (60-min therapy session twice a week). The participants will be randomised into four groups that will have different modifications of the intervention, and the group without additional elements will serve as a waiting-list control group. The primary outcome will measure psychological distress. Secondary outcomes will address depression, anxiety, exhaustion, burnout, health-related quality of life and challenges in recognising emotions (alexithymia). Discussion: The trial will elevate our understanding of the efficacy of integrative improvisational music therapy for depression-related disorders. Results will give more information about the combinations of additional elements used as part of the intervention. Extensive dataset will allow us to investigate the dynamics of therapeutic change and the factors that predict certain responsiveness to the intervention or explain the effects. Trial registration: Prospectively registered on ISRCTN on 12.04.2024 (ISRCTN26812986). Study was approved by the Regional Medical Research Ethics Committee of Wellbeing Services County of Central Finland 15.02.2024 (ref: 7U/2023).

Stress is an increasingly prevalent state experienced by many individuals, but mood regulation and relaxation can alleviate some of its associated symptoms. While music listening has generally been shown to support stress alleviation, less is known about how individual differences potentially guide the choice of music for this purpose. The present study focused on depression and anxiety as individual differences that might relate to the selection of relaxation music. Through an online questionnaire, 93 participants provided ~20 minutes (median number of tracks per participant = 6) of self-selected relaxation music and completed questionnaires measuring depression, anxiety and previous use of music for mood regulation and adaptive functions. We compared Spotify audio features of the relaxation music to general music and found that relaxation music had higher levels of Acousticness and lower levels of Speechiness, Energy, Valence, Liveness, Instrumentalness, Danceability and Loudness. Through clustering, we identified three subgroups of relaxation music (i.e., ‘loud-energetic-danceable’, ‘neutral-acoustic’ and ‘mellow-instrumental’). Finally, results showed that higher depression scores increased the likelihood of selecting relaxation music from the ‘loud-energetic-danceable’ cluster over the remaining two, while higher anxiety scores increased the likelihood of selecting music from the ‘mellow-instrumental’ cluster over the ‘loud-energetic-danceable’ cluster. Previous use of music for mood regulation, but not adaptive functions, also predicted music selection for relaxation. This research advances our understanding of how different individuals use music to reduce stress and relax and provides guidance on how music can adaptively cater for these purposes.

Correspondences between the timing of motor behaviour and that of musical performance are well-established. Motor behaviour, however, is known to degrade across the adult lifespan due to neurobiological decay. In particular, performance on speed-dependent motor tasks deteriorates, spontaneous motor tempo (SMT) slows, and upper motor rate limit falls. Here, we examine whether this slowdown in motor behaviour impacts the tempo of musical performance as a function of age. We analysed 13,180 songs released between 1956 and 2020 by artists with careers spanning at least 20 years. Generalised Additive Mixed Models (GAMMs) and Linear Mixed Models (LMMs) were employed to assess the effects of age, operationalised by subtracting the birth year from the release year of each track, on musical tempo. Results revealed a slight tempo increase from early adulthood to age 30, followed by a marked, linear slowdown with age across the remainder of the lifespan. From artists’ thirties to their eighties, tempo decreased by almost 10 bpm, averaging around 2 bpm per decade. This decrease aligns with the slowing-with-age hypothesis and mirrors rates of decline observed in studies of SMT and gait speed. Our findings highlight a significant gap in the understanding of creative performance across the lifespan, particularly the role of age as a mediating factor in musical tempo. Moreover, that a discernible decrease in the tempo is apparent even in commercial recordings further emphasises the inescapable connection between the dynamics of motor behaviour and the timing of musical performance.

Music artists play a crucial role in shaping both regional and global sonic trends. While technological and cultural shifts are often credited with driving musical change, less is known about how an artist’s age influences stylistic evolution. Here, we examine how acousticness, the extent to which a track features acoustic instrumentation, varies across an artist’s career. Using data from Spotify’s API, we analyse 45,478 tracks from 190 artists with a Generalised Additive Mixed Model (GAMM) to assess the relationship between acousticness and artist age, controlling for release year and genre. Results reveal a consistent positive association between artist age and acousticness, with artists tending to produce more acoustic music as they age, irrespective of their genre. However, release year shows a strong negative effect, with newer music increasingly characterised by fewer acoustic features, likely reflecting broader industry trends such as digital production and evolving listener preferences. Our findings suggest a dynamic interplay between individual artistic development and external cultural forces, where ageing artists gravitate toward more organic sounds, even as popular music trends continue to favour synthetic production.