Research into listeners’ emotional experience of different audio formats heavily relies on subjective, self-report measures. However, little is known about neural and physiological responses. As such, this feasibility study utilised electroencephalography (EEG), Heart Rate (HR) and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), to explore the objective neurophysiological impacts of mono, stereo and spatial audio formats, across different music genres. In a within-subjects design, participants listened to 27 randomised stimuli, each comprising of a 30 second music excerpt across the three audio formats. Results were not significant but trends did arise in the data. While mono formats were shown to elevate cognitive load and arousal, spatial audio elicited a decrease in physiological arousal, promoting a more relaxed state. However, the effects overall were very genre-dependent. Differences in physiological response between static and dynamic spatial reproduction of different music genres are discussed. While limited by the lack of subjective validation and sample size, this study highlights interesting relationships between audio format and the physiological responses of music listeners.
