The literature review reveals different conceptual and methodological challenges in the field of music and emotion, such as the lack of agreement in terms of standardized datasets, and the need for replication of prior findings. Our study aimed at validating for Spanish population a set of film music stimuli previously standardized in Finnish samples. In addition, we explored the role of gender and culture in the perception of emotions through music using 102 excerpts selected from Eerola and Vuoskoski’s dataset. A total of 129 voluntary undergraduate students (71.32% females) from different degrees participated voluntarily in this study, where they were instructed to rate both discrete emotions (Happiness, Sadness, Tenderness, Fear, Anger) and affective dimensions (Valence, Energy Arousal, Tension Arousal) using a 9-point scale after presentation of each excerpt. Strong similarities between Finnish and Spanish ratings were found, with only minor discrepancies across samples in the evaluation of basic emotions. Taken together, our findings suggest that the current database is suitable for future research on music and emotions. Additional theoretical and practical implications of this validation are discussed.

Increased attention among the research community in exploring underlying mechanisms of emotion regulation has prompted a growth of experimental works in this field. Empirical studies have mainly focused on self‐reports, brain imaging, and electrophysiological measures, with only a few works exploring peripheral physiology. Additionally, most of such studies have not considered the specific stimuli content, even though prior literature has shown relevant differences in psychophysiological and subjective responses depending on picture categories. The current study assessed several peripheral correlates (startle amplitude, electrodermal changes, heart rate) of emotion regulation processes in a sample of 122 healthy participants. The task consisted of voluntary reappraisal of negative emotions prompted by unpleasant pictures (threat to others and victims), compared to a nonregulation control condition (looking at exemplars of the same categories and household objects). Results showed an effect of emotion regulation instructions in all psychophysiological and subjective measures. In peripheral physiology, greater responses were observed specifically when increasing negative emotions, concurring with previous research. Regarding specific content, our findings evidence a similar emotion regulation pattern, independently of the unpleasant category, suggesting a plausible effect of cognitive variables (such as cognitive effort) during voluntary reappraisal for both categories.

The scientific study of emotions has been of great interest for decades and it has raised numerous theoretical and experimental questions, such as the suitability of affective stimuli used for inducing emotions (Moltó et al., 1999(Moltó et al., , 2013. Most of the previous studies have focused on the use of affective pictures, facial expressions, words, or sounds to induce emotions in laboratory settings, obtaining clear and wellestablished results. However, the number of studies focused

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Although music is one of the most important sources of pleasure for many people, there are considerable individual differences in music reward sensitivity. Behavioral and neurobiological characterizations of music reward variability have been topics of increasing scientific interest over the last two decades. However, it is not clear how differences in music reward sensitivity might influence the perception of emotions represented by music and, specifically, how music reward sensitivity could influence subjective music evaluation when the affective valence of music is considered. In the present study, we investigated the relationship between music reward sensitivity and the perception of emotions in music, taking into account the emotional category of stimuli (pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant music clips). Music reward and emotion perception were also explored as a function of gender, musicianship, and music discrimination skills. We used the Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire and the previously validated Film Music Stimulus Set (FMSS); participants rated FMSS excerpts for affective dimensions (valence, energy, and tension arousal) and discrete emotions (happiness, anger, fear, tenderness, and sadness). Our results showed that music reward was the main factor influencing FMSS evaluation, particularly for excerpts associated with positive affect. Gender had an important influence on evaluations linked to the negative pole of emotions, and music discrimination skills seemed to be associated with cognitive aspects of music analysis, rather than with the emotional architecture of pleasant music excerpts. Our findings highlight the need to consider music reward sensitivity and gender in studies of music and emotion, and open the possibility of using the FMSS in studies exploring the neurobiological and psychosocial bases of music emotion.