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It proposes that music-induced pleasure depends not only on the integrity of the general reward system, but also on functional and structural connectivity between auditory regions and reward-related areas, especially the superior temporal gyrus, orbitofrontal cortex, and nucleus accumbens."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.copsyc.2026.102407_bib77","unstructured":"Using data from more than 9,000 Swedish twins, this study shows that genetic factors explain approximately 54% of individual variability in music reward sensitivity. Most of this genetic influence is partly independent of music perceptual abilities and general reward sensitivity, while the different facets of musical enjoyment appear to rely on overlapping but distinct genetic pathways."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.copsyc.2026.102407_bib78","unstructured":"Using resting-state and task-based fMRI combined with machine-learning approaches, this study demonstrates that state-dependent fluctuations in spontaneous neural connections between right auditory cortex and reward-related striatal\/orbitofrontal regions during a brief silent period immediately before music listening predict the duration and physiological intensity of subsequent peak reward experiences, i.e., chills, as well as activation levels in the nucleus accumbens and insula. The findings suggest that intrinsic brain states shape the likelihood of experiencing chills and other highly rewarding aesthetic responses."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.copsyc.2026.102407_bib79","unstructured":"This publication provides one of the most comprehensive investigations of musical beauty under naturalistic listening conditions. Combining behavioral ratings, EEG, fMRI, and expert musicological analyses, they first identified musical passages that listeners consistently rated as beautiful or not beautiful and used them to model fMRI responses during attentive, uninterrupted listening. Beautiful passages were associated with medial orbitofrontal activity and increased auditory\u2013orbitofrontal communication, together with inhibition of bilateral supratemporal regions; by contrast, not-beautiful passages elicited stronger bilateral supratemporal activation and reduced coupling with the orbitofrontal cortex. Post-experiment expert ratings further showed that beautiful passages tended to be more melodic, calm, sad, slow, tonal, traditional, and simple, whereas less beautiful passages were described as more agitating, fast, atonal, innovative, complex, and rhythmically driven. Hence, the study identified neural activations and connections related to beauty in music as well as their acoustic and structural correlates, bridging neurobiological and musicological accounts of beauty."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.copsyc.2026.102407_bib80","unstructured":"This publication introduces the Experimental Concert Research (ECR) framework, an interdisciplinary methodological approach for studying aesthetic experiences during live music performances. By integrating psychophysiological measures, behavioral observations, audience synchronization metrics, and self-reports, the framework offers a comprehensive model for investigating music listening in ecologically valid settings."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.copsyc.2026.102407_bib81","unstructured":"This large-scale experimental concert study examines how different concert formats shape aesthetic experiences in live classical music audiences. During 11 concerts organised at halls with seats equipped with physiological sensors, 802 participants listened to the same programme of string quintets: Beethoven\u2019s String Quintet op. 104 in C minor (first movement only), Brett Dean\u2019s contemporary Epitaphs, and Brahms\u2019s String Quintet op. 111 in G major. The concerts took place in two markedly different venues: the Pierre Boulez Saal with an emphasis on focused and intimate listening; and Radialsystem, a renovated industrial pumping station, both with seats equipped with sensors for physiological recordings. The findings showed that concert-format manipulations did not globally alter appreciation of the music or performance, but selectively affected musical immersion, venue experience, concert-design evaluation, aesthetic emotions, and physiological responses, especially heart rate. The traditional Pierre Boulez Saal produced higher ratings of the venue, the concert as a whole, musical immersion, and concert design than the more modern Radialsystem, suggesting that the concert hall acted as an environmental prime that supported classical-music listening schemas. However, intense personal participation inadvertently reduced attention toward other audience members, weakening collective identity. The findings indicate that contextual manipulations, including venue characteristics, visual augmentations, and performer explanations, selectively influence immersion, emotional engagement, and satisfaction, highlighting the importance of situational factors in musical aesthetic experiences."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.copsyc.2026.102407_bib82","unstructured":"In this hyperscanning study, mobile EEG was recorded from 23 viewers of live performances of contemporary dance. Delta-band audience synchrony tracked continuous engagement, peaked during direct performer\u2013spectator interactions such as sustained eye contact, and was reduced when the recorded performance was watched alone in the laboratory, suggesting that both the physical and social dimensions of liveness shape collective aesthetic engagement."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.copsyc.2026.102407_bib83","unstructured":"This study provides neuroimaging evidence that live music performances elicit stronger and more consistent affective brain responses than recorded performances. Increased activation of the amygdala, ventral striatum, and thalamic regions suggests that live music enhances emotional entrainment and attentional engagement, supporting the ecological relevance of live-based paradigms."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.copsyc.2026.102407_bib84","unstructured":"This study demonstrates that live audio-visual concert performances induce physiological synchronization among audience members, measured through inter-subject correlations of heart-rate dynamics. The results highlight the contribution of visual information and shared attentional moments to collective musical experiences and audience-level entrainment."},{"key":"10.1016\/j.copsyc.2026.102407_bib85","unstructured":"Using fNIRS hyperscanning, this study examined friend dyads listening to preferred and experimenter-selected music either alone or together. Joint listening increased the similarity of continuous pleasure ratings and interpersonal neural synchrony in the prefrontal cortex, with neural synchrony predicted by shared pleasure, indicating that social context modulates both affective alignment and music-related reward processing."}],"container-title":["Current Opinion in Psychology"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/api.elsevier.com\/content\/article\/PII:S2352250X26001454?httpAccept=text\/xml","content-type":"text\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/api.elsevier.com\/content\/article\/PII:S2352250X26001454?httpAccept=text\/plain","content-type":"text\/plain","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,8]],"date-time":"2026-09-08T16:49:49Z","timestamp":1788886189000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/linkinghub.elsevier.com\/retrieve\/pii\/S2352250X26001454"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2027,2]]},"references-count":85,"alternative-id":["S2352250X26001454"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.copsyc.2026.102407","relation":{},"ISSN":["2352-250X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2352-250X","type":"print"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2027,2]]},"assertion":[{"value":"Elsevier","name":"publisher","label":"This article is maintained by"},{"value":"Music as a form of art: Current findings and challenges of music neuroaesthetics research","name":"articletitle","label":"Article Title"},{"value":"Current Opinion in Psychology","name":"journaltitle","label":"Journal Title"},{"value":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.copsyc.2026.102407","name":"articlelink","label":"CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version"},{"value":"article","name":"content_type","label":"Content Type"},{"value":"\u00a9 2026 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.","name":"copyright","label":"Copyright"}],"article-number":"102407"}}