Flicker light stimulation enhances the emotional response to music: a comparison study to the effects of psychedelics
Frontiers in Psychology February 14, 2024 Caspar Montgomery, Timo Torsten Schmidt, Ioanna Amaya 13 citations
Flicker light stimulation (FLS), a non-pharmacological method that induces altered states of consciousness (ASCs) and hallucination-like phenomena, can enhance emotional responses to music. In a study with twenty participants, listening to emotionally evocative music while undergoing FLS significantly increased reported music-evoked emotion, particularly emotions related to “Joyful Activation.” The intensity of the FLS experience correlated with higher levels of emotional arousal. These results suggest that FLS may serve as a method for inducing ASCs and that visual stimulation can interact with music-evoked emotion, paralleling effects seen with classic psychedelics like LSD.