Effect of different « relaxing » music styles on the autonomic nervous system

Perez-Lloret, S., Diez, J., Dome, M.N., Delvenne, A.A., Braidot, N., Cardinali, D.P., & Vigo, D.E. (2014). Effect of different « relaxing » music styles on the autonomic nervous system. Noise & Health, 16:72, 279-284
http://www.noiseandhealth.org/text.asp?2014/16/72/279/140507

Authors

Santiago Perez-Lloret – Department of Teaching and Research, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Catholic University in Buenos Aires
Joaquin Diez – Department of Teaching and Research, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Catholic University in Buenos Aires
Maria Natalia Dome, Andrea Alvarez Delvenne, Nestor Braidot, Daniel P. Cardinali, & Daniel Edurdo Vigo – Brain Decision Braidot Center, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Keywords

Autonomic nervous system, cognition, emotion, heart rate variability, music, music therapy

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.