The relationship between music and medicine is a fast growing area that in the past has been largely focused on the use of music as an alternative and complementary therapy [1]. Relaxant music has been reported to present positive influence on stress reduction, relaxation, pain management, neural cognition and cardiac function [2,3]. Auditory stimulation with music is known to induce several psychological responses, leading to changes in the autonomic nervous system [4,5].In this context, the heart rate variability (HRV) is a non-invasive method that evaluates the cardiac autonomic control in humans, it is a conventionally accepted term to describe the fluctuations in the intervals between consecutive heart beats (RR intervals), which are related to the influences of the ANS on the sinus node [6].Great part of studies has observed the relaxing effect of classical music. On the other hand, genres such as heavy metal, hip hop and techno music are commonly associated with physiologic excitement [7].Although two recent studies showed reduced HRV during exposure to heavy metal musical auditory stimulation in healthy women [8,9], others found absence of cardiac Aim. Investigate the acute effects of heavy metal musical auditory stimulation on cardiac autonomic regulation. Material and methods. this is a prospective study conducted on 22 healthy women between 18 and 30 years old. All procedures were performed in the same soundproof room. the volunteers remained at rest for 20 minutes and subsequently were exposed to heavy metal (75-84 dB) music for 20 minutes. We analysed the following HRV indices: SdNN, RMSSd, pNN50, LF, HF and LF/HF ratio, RRtri, tINN, Sd1, Sd2 and Sd1/Sd2 ratio. Results. during exposure to heavy metal music auditory stimulation we observed that the LF (ms 2 ) tended to increase (p=0,06) and reduce HF (nu) (p=0,07) and the LF/HF ratio increased (p=0,05). No significant changes were found for SdNN, pNN50, RMSSd, SdNN/RMSSd ratio, tINN, RRtri, Sd1, Sd2 and Sd1/Sd2 ratio. Conclusion. Auditory stimulation with the selected heavy metal musical style acutely decreased HRV. Keywords: cardiovascular system, autonomic nervous system, hearing, music.
ACUTE EFFECTS OF AUDITORY STIMULATION WITH HEAVY METAL MUSIC ON HEART RATE RESPONSES