Body maps of the sensation of musical groove.

ABSTRACT: Rhythmic music often leads to an urge to move the body in time with the music. This urge to move can be a pleasurable experience. In psychology, we define the pleasurable wanting to move to music as groove. Here, we investigate where in the body these two groove components-movement and pleasure-are felt and whether the embodied sensations depend on the musical genre. Using a body sensation map paradigm, we found that the funk genre, which elicited high levels of groove, increased sensations across the whole body, including in the head, shoulders, upper chest, abdomen, arms, hands, hips, legs, and feet. Importantly, wanting to move and pleasure produced distinct body maps, with wanting to move associated with more sensation in the extremities and pleasure more associated with feelings in th

SUBMITTER: Witek MAG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12503160 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature