To this aim, 46 healthy adults performed a Stroop-type task in five different sound environments: relaxing music, stimulating music, relaxing music-matched noise, stimulating music-matched noise, and silence. The aim of this research was to explore the effect of relaxing and stimulating background music on selective attention. Previous studies have established that the level of arousal of music (e.g., relaxing/stimulating) has the ability to modulate mood and affect the performance of cognitive tasks. 4Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, CNRS, UMR 5292, INSERM, U1028, University Lyon 1, Lyon, Franceĭaily activities can often be performed while listening to music, which could influence the ability to select relevant stimuli while ignoring distractors.3Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation of Metropolitain Montreal (CRIR), Montreal, QC, Canada.2Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada.1International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Music, Emotions, and Cognition Research Laboratory (MUSEC), Center for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM), Montreal, QC, Canada.Éva Nadon 1,2,3, Barbara Tillmann 4, Arnaud Saj 2,3*† and Nathalie Gosselin 1,2*†

Soft emotional background music