My research interests include psychophysiological correlates of musical preferences (PPG, EKG, respiration, EEG, fMRI), models for musical preference, mechanisms for musically induced emotion, and individualized experimental design. I am interested in both creative and clinical applications of my work.
(Dec 2021) Master’s Thesis: Using Music to Modulate Emotional Memory [thesis]
Ongoing research projects
(Sept 2023 - present) Behavioural, Social, and Neural Mechanisms of Music Appreciation
Journal articles
Ren, Y., Mehdizadeh, S. K., Leslie, G., & Brown, T. I. (2024). Affective Music During Episodic Memory Recollection Modulates Subsequent False Emotional Memory Traces: An fMRI Study. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience, 24(5),912-930. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-024-01200-0
Mehdizadeh, S. K., & Leslie, G. (2023). The physiology of musical preference: A secondary analysis of the Study Forrest dataset. Music Perception, 40(5), 395-409. https://doi.org/10.1525/mp.2023.40.5.395
Conferences
(Winner, student research award) Mehdizadeh, S. K., Ren, Y., Leslie, G., Brown, T. I. (2024). Emotional Music Modulates Episodic Memory During Recollection and Induces False Traces. 2024 Biennial Meeting of the Society of Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC ‘24). [read accepted abstract] [watch the lightning talk]
Mehdizadeh, S. K., Cutrell, E., Winters, R. M., Djuric, N., Cheng, Y., Tashev, I. J., & Wang, Y. T. (2023). EEG and Eye-Tracking Error-Related Responses During Predictive Text Interactions: A BCI Case Study. 2023 45th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC ‘23). https://doi.org/10.1109/EMBC40787.2023.10340598
Mehdizadeh, S. K., Ren, Y., Brown, T. I., & Leslie, G. (2022). Using Music to Modulate Human Emotional Memory. 2022 Biennial Meeting of the Society of Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC ‘22). [poster]
Roque, T. R, Rajagopalan, N., Jain, S., Mehdizadeh, S. K., & Leslie, G. (2022). Multimodal, Musical Hyperscanning to Promote Empathy in HCI. Empathy-Centric Design at Scale workshop at CHI ‘22.
Mehdizadeh, S. K., & Leslie, G. (2021). Novel Methodologies for Secondary Analyses of Physiological and Musical Preference Data. International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC ‘21).
[read accepted abstract] [watch the conference presentation]