Neural Encoding of Songs is Modulated by Their Enjoyment

TL;DR

This study explores how enjoyment influences EEG-based music recognition, showing that subjective enjoyment can both aid user identification and complicate song identification, with implications for improving neural decoding methods.

Contribution

The paper provides empirical evidence that incorporating enjoyment as a factor enhances EEG-based song recognition accuracy.

Findings

Enjoyment improves user identification accuracy.

Enjoyment complicates song identification.

Considering enjoyment enhances neural decoding.

Abstract

We examine user and song identification from neural (EEG) signals. Owing to perceptual subjectivity in human-media interaction, music identification from brain signals is a challenging task. We demonstrate that subjective differences in music perception aid user identification, but hinder song identification. In an attempt to address intrinsic complexities in music identification, we provide empirical evidence on the role of enjoyment in song recognition. Our findings reveal that considering song enjoyment as an additional factor can improve EEG-based song recognition.