Music and time perception: how the pleasure evoked by music influence the experience of time.

Time perception is a flexible cognitive function shaped by attention, arousal, memory, and reward. Music provides an ideal context for studying these mechanisms because it unfolds over time and consistently engages emotional, motor, and dopaminergic reward networks. Although previous research shows that music often induces temporal underestimation, the specific contribution of musical pleasure and individual reward sensitivity remains unclear, with findings to date being inconsistent. To address this gap, the present study examined whether music-induced reward modulates prospective time estimation, considering both momentary pleasure and stable individual differences in musical reward responsiveness. Participants completed a duration – estimation task while listening to musical excerpts that differed in reward value, operationalized as self-selected preferred pieces versus experimenter – selected pieces Subjective pleasure ratings and scores on the Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire (BMRQ) were included as continuous predictors of temporal bias. Results replicated a robust baseline underestimation across conditions, consistent with the attentional diversion associated with music listening. Pleasure showed a significant effect of reduced underestimation, while higher BMRQ scores were associated with an overall decrease in the underestimation of time, suggesting a convergent relationship between reward sensitivity and temporal accuracy. Although modest and statistically limited, these findings offer preliminary evidence that reward interacts with attentional and arousal-based mechanisms in shaping subjective time. The study’s methodological constraints highlight the need for larger samples, controlled musical features, and neurophysiological measures. Keywords: time perception; music reward; pleasure; BMRQ; duration estimation.