Spontaneous Music-Evoked Autobiographical Memories in Individuals Experiencing Depression

Listening to music often triggers strong memories of events from our past, which influence how we affectively experience music listening and can therefore contribute to music’s therapeutic capacity. The aim of this study was to examine the valence and content of spontaneous music-evoked autobiographical memories (MEAMs) in listeners with self-reported depression, who typically demonstrate negatively biased autobiographical memory. Eighteen depressed and 21 controls participated in a music-listening experiment where they listened to a personalized music stimulus, described their memories, and thereafter rated the valence of these memories and of their induced affect. Participants’ ratings w…