Effect of Classical music on heart rate variability between genders

Abstract

Background: Listening to music alleviates stress but the gender specific difference in the beneficial response elicited by the music on autonomic function is not clear. Therefore this study has been undertaken to look for the significant difference in the autonomic modulation between males and females on listening to a classical music, Rag Bilahari. Aims& Objectives: To assess the effect of music on autonomic modulation between genders. Materials and methods: 60 medical students between the age of 17 and 20 years were divided into study group of 30 students who were to be exposed to classical music and 30 for controls who were not exposed to music. Each group had 15 participants from each gender. The study group was exposed to the preselected music for half an hour for 30 days and 5 min HRV was recorded before and after the intervention, using PHYSIOPAC-PP 4 software (MEDICAID SYSTEMS, Chandigarh) for all the participants of both the groups and the basal cardiovascular parameters of heart rate, blood pressure and the time domain parameters of HRV such as mean RR interval, standard deviation of all normal RR intervals (SDNN), root mean square of differences between adjacent normal RR intervals (RMSSD), and the percentage of adjacent RR intervals with a difference of duration greater than 50 msec (PNN50) were analysed using Kubios analyser. Results: Significant difference in heart rate being lower in females (p=0.0006) and mean RR interval being higher in females (P=0.0004) was observed in music group while parasympathetic activity was increased in both genders. Conclusion: Music listening enhances parasympathetic activity which is more pronounced in females.

The effect of background audio and audiovisual stimuli on students' autonomic responses during and after an experimental academic examination

“…As such, a study by Latha et al. ( 2015 ) showed that classical music might give rise to a more evident increase in females' parasympathetic activity.…”

“…However, functional MR and PET studies showed that brain regions associated with the control of attention, memory, working memory, emotion, and the limbic system also engage in processing musical auditory information (Salimpoor et al, 2013;Trost et al, 2012). As such, a study by Latha et al (2015) showed that classical music might give rise to a more evident increase in females' parasympathetic activity.…”

The effects of music on pulse rate and blood pressure in healthy young adults

“…In our study, the percent decreases in pulse rate and blood pressure was slightly greater in males when compared to females and this suggest slow music listening has a shift toward vagal activity and is more pronounced in male. 12 In male subjects, the mean pulse rate was increased significantly after listening to fast beat music, whereas the systolic and diastolic blood pressure was increased but not statistically significant. Similarly, in females the pulse rate is increased but not statistically significant, whereas the SBP and DBP were significantly increased.…”

Aerobic Training, in Combination with Listening Music, Changes Post-Exercise Cardiac Autonomic Function in Collegiate Overweight and Obese Individuals

“…Some studies have shown HR to decrease by calming music (23), soft slow music (24), and self-selected music (25,26), whereas others suggest no difference (27)(28)(29). Listening to music enhances parasympathetic dominance with a reduction in sympathetic tone (30). Previous studies have shown long-term and short-term beneficial effects of musical auditory stimulation on autonomic function (26,(31)(32)(33).…”