Effects of different "relaxing" music styles on the autonomic nervous system

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the effects on heart rate variability (HRV) of exposure to different styles of "relaxing" music. Autonomic responses to musical stimuli were correlated with subjective preferences regarding the relaxing properties of each music style. Linear and nonlinear HRV analysis was conducted in 25 healthy subjects exposed to silence or to classical, new age or romantic melodies in a random fashion. At the end of the study, subjects were asked to choose the melody that they would use to relax. The low-to-high-frequency ratio was significantly higher when subjects were exposed to "new age" music when compared with silence (3.4 ± 0.3 vs. 2.6 ± 0.3, respectively, P < 0.02), while no differences were found with "classical" or "romantic" melodies (2.1 ± 0.4 and 2.2 ± 0.3). These results were related to a reduction in the high frequency component with "new age" compared to silence (17.4 ± 1.9 vs. 23.1 ± 1.1, respectively P < 0.004). Significant differences across melodies were also found for nonlinear HRV indexes. Subjects' preferences did not correlate with autonomic responses to melodies. The results suggest that "new age" music induced a shift in HRV from higher to lower frequencies, independently on the music preference of the listener.

Autonomic Effects of Music in Health and Crohn's Disease: The Impact of Isochronicity, Emotional Valence, and Tempo

“…The predominantly moderate to large effect sizes (see Table 4 ) demonstrate the efficacy of music to elicit ANS effects, and indicate the large share in variability of ANS activity explained by the music stimuli. Several previous studies did not demonstrate effects of music on HR [ 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 ] and HRV [ 41 , 58 , 59 ]. However, our results indicate that music does evoke an increase in HR and a decrease in HRV.…”

“…As for HR, emotional arousal is discussed as a major factor for effects of music on HRV and results from several studies imply that different levels of subjective arousal during music listening determine different HRV [ 25 , 26 , 34 , 54 , 55 , 56 ]. However, other studies did not demonstrate clear relationships of arousal and HRV (despite demonstrating significant HRV effects during music listening compared to baseline values [ 29 , 30 , 45 , 57 ]). This indicates that additional factors impact on music-evoked HRV effects.…”

“…Surprisingly, despite the well-described neural connections between music perception, emotion, and the ANS (as outlined above), many studies found no significant HR effects with music listening compared to baseline values [ 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 ]. A lack of statistical power may explain the missing effects because some of these studies had small numbers of participants (e.g., 18 [ 39 , 44 ]), or performed only few trials of music listening, thus increasing the risk of a low signal-to-noise ratio (e.g., three trials in [ 40 , 44 , 45 ] and only one trial in [ 41 ]). Generally, the methods of previous studies on music-evoked HR effects were very heterogeneous: For example, some authors let the participants choose the music [ 28 , 39 ], others presented instrumental tunes as well as music with vocals [ 25 , 33 , 42 ].…”

“…As described above, the evidence regarding the ANS effects of music is inconclusive, often even contradictory, and many authors in this field called for additional studies [ 15 , 17 , 32 , 45 , 56 ]. This situation is surprising because psychological models on music and emotion consistently include ANS activity changes as a core factor contributing to music-evoked emotion [ 62 , 63 , 64 ].…”

Impact of Music on Sport Intensity (Allegro) and on Levels of Left Ventricular Myocardial Damage in Wistar Rats

“…Previous research has shown that exercise with fast music increases the heart rate compared with slow music (Sugiharto, 2014). Likewise, other studies have proven that exercise accompany by music will stimulate central nervous system and autonomic nerves, health, emotional, and physiological adaptations that reduce the stress caused by exercise (Perez-Lloret et al, 2014). Basically, exercise is a stressful condition which the body responds to by activating the cardiorespiratory system, the locus ceruleus (LC/norepinephrine (NE), metabolic system and HPA axis system.…”