Indian classical music with incremental variation in tempo and octave promotes better anxiety reduction and controlled mind wandering—A randomised controlled EEG study

Studies have reported the benefits of music-listening in stress-reduction using musical pieces of specific scale or ‘Raaga’. But the influence of lower-level musical properties (like tempo, octave, timbre, etc.) lack research backing. Carnatic music concerts use incremental modulations in tempo and octave (e.g.: ‘Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi’) to elevate the mood of audiences. Therefore, the current study aimed to examine the anxiolytic effect of this musical property.A randomised controlled cross-over study with 21 male undergraduate medical students was followed. 11 participants listened to ‘Varying music’ (VM: instrumental music with incremental variations in tempo and octave) and 10 listened to ‘Stable music’ (SM: instrumental music without such variations), thrice daily for 6 days, both clips recorded in Raaga-Kaapi and silence being the control intervention. Electroencephalography (EEG) and Electrocardiography (for heart rate variability or HRV) were done on all 6 days. Beck's Anxiety inventory and State-trait anxiety scale were administered on Day-1 and Day-6.A significant anxiety score reduction was seen only in VM. VM showed marked decrease in lower frequency EEG power in bilateral temporo-parieto-occipital regions compared to silence, whereas SM showed increase in higher frequencies. Relatively, VM showed more midline power reduction (i.e., lower default mode network or DMN activity) and SM showed greater left-dominant alpha/beta asymmetry (i.e., greater right brain activation). During both music interventions HRV remained stable, unlike silence intervention.We speculate that, gradual transition between lower-slower and higher-faster music portions of VM induces a ‘controlled-mind wandering’ state involving balanced switching between heightened mind wandering (‘attention to self’) and reduced mind wandering (‘attention to music’) states, respectively. Therefore, music-selection has remarkable influence on stress-management and warrants further research.     

Effect of synchronized or desynchronized music listening during osteopathic treatment: An EEG study

While background music is often used during osteopathic treatment, it remains unclear whether it facilitates treatment, and, if it does, whether it is listening to music or jointly listening to a common stimulus that is most important. We created three experimental situations for a standard osteopathic procedure in which patients and practitioner listened either to silence, to the same music in synchrony, or (unknowingly) to different desynchronized montages of the same material. Music had no effect on heart rate and arterial pressure pre‐ and posttreatment compared to silence, but EEG measures revealed a clear effect of synchronized versus desynchronized listening: listening to desynchronized music was associated with larger amounts of mu‐rhythm event‐related desynchronization (ERD), indicating decreased sensorimotor fluency compared to what was gained in the synchronized music listening condition. This result suggests that, if any effect can be attributed to music for osteopathy, it is related to its capacity to modulate empathy between patient and therapist and, further, that music does not systematically create better conditions for empathy than silence.     

Music can facilitate blood pressure recovery from stress

Objectives: Interventions that reduce the magnitude of cardiovascular responses to stress are justified, at least in part, by the notion that exaggerated responses to stress can damage the cardiovascular system. Recent data suggest that it is worthwhile to explore, in addition to the magnitude of the cardiovascular responses during stress (reactivity), the factors that affect the return to baseline levels after the stressor has ended (recovery). This experiment examined the effect of listening to music on cardiovascular recovery. Design and method: Participants (N = 75) performed a challenging three‐minute mental arithmetic task and then were assigned randomly to sit in silence or to listen to one of several styles of music: classical, jazz or pop. Results: Participants who listened to classical music had significantly lower post‐task systolic blood pressure levels (M = 2.1 mmHg above pre‐stress baseline) than did participants who heard no music (M = 10.8 mmHg). Other musical styles did not produce significantly better recovery than silence. Conclusions: The data suggest that listening to music may serve to improve cardiovascular recovery from stress, although not all music selections are effective.     

Musically induced arousal affects pain perception in females but not in males: a psychophysiological examination

The present study investigated affective and physiological responses to changes of tempo and mode in classical music and their effects on heat pain perception. Thirty-eight healthy non-musicians (17 female) listened to sequences of 24 music stimuli which were variations of 4 pieces of classical music. Tempo (46, 60, and 95 beats/min) and mode (major and minor) were manipulated digitally, all other musical elements were held constant. Participants rated valence, arousal, happiness and sadness of the musical stimuli as well as the intensity and the unpleasantness of heat pain stimuli which were applied during music listening. Heart rate, respiratory rate and end-tidal PCO(2) were recorded. Pain ratings were highest for the fastest tempo. Also, participants' arousal ratings, their respiratory rate and heart rate were accelerated by the fastest tempo. The modulation of pain perception by the tempo of music seems to be mediated by the listener's arousal.     

The “Mozart Effect”: An Electroencephalographic Analysis Employing the Methods of Induced Event-Related Desynchronization/Synchronization and Event-Related Coherence

The event-related responses of 18 individuals were recorded while they were listening to 3 music clips of 6 s duration which were repeated 30 times each. The music clips differed in the level of their complex structure, induced mood, musical tempo and prominent frequency. They were taken from Mozart's sonata (K. 448), and Brahms' Hungarian dance (no. 5). The third clip was a simplified version of the theme taken from Haydn's symphony (no. 94) played by a computer synthesizer. Significant differences in induced event-related desynchronization between the 3 music clips were only observed in the lower-1 alpha band which is related to attentional processes. A similar pattern was observed for the coherence measures. While respondents listened to the Mozart clip, coherence in the lower alpha bands increased more, whereas in the gamma band a less pronounced increase was observed as compared with the Brahms and Haydn clips. The clustering of the three clips based on EEG measures distinguished between the Mozart clip on the one hand, and the Haydn and Brahms clips on the other, even though the Haydn and Brahms clips were at the opposite extremes with regard to the mood they induced in listeners, musical tempo, and complexity of structure. This would suggest that Mozart's music--with no regard to the level of induced mood, musical tempo and complexity--influences the level of arousal. It seems that modulations in the frequency domain of Mozart's sonata have the greatest influence on the reported neurophysiological activity.     

Effects of hypnosis on diffuse noxious inhibitory controls

The neurophysiological mechanisms of hypnotic analgesia are still under debate. It is known that pain occurring in one part of the body (counterstimulation) decreases pain in the rest of the body by activating the diffuse noxious inhibitory controls (DNICs). The aim of this study was to explore the effects of hypnosis on both pain perception and heterotopic nociceptive stimulation. The A forms of both the Harward Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility and the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale were administered to 50 healthy students. Twenty subjects were selected and assigned to two groups: group A, consisting of 10 subjects with high hypnotic susceptibility; and group B, consisting of 10 subjects with low hypnotic susceptibility. The subjects were then randomly assigned first to either a control session or a session of hypnotic analgesia. The nociceptive flexion reflex (RIII) was recorded from the biceps femoris muscle in response to stimulation of the sural nerve. The subjective pain threshold, the RIII reflex threshold, and the mean area with suprathreshold stimulation were determined. Heterotopic nociceptive stimulation was investigated by the cold-pressor test (CPT). During and immediately after the CPT, the subjective pain threshold, pain tolerance, and mean RIII area were determined again. The same examinations were repeated during hypnosis. Hypnosis significantly reduced the subjective pain perception and the nociceptive flexion reflex. It also increased pain tolerance and reduced pain perception and the nociceptive reflex during the CPT. These effects were found only in highly susceptible subjects. However, the DNIC's activity was less evident during hypnosis than during the CPT effects without hypnosis. Both hypnosis and DNICs were able to modify the perception of pain. It seems likely that DNICs and hypnosis use the same descending inhibitory pathways for the control of pain. The susceptibility of the subject is a critical factor in hypnotically induced analgesia.     

Elevation of dental pain threshold induced in man by physical exercise is not reversed by cyproheptadine-mediated suppression of growth hormone release

The effect of cyproheptadine on growth hormone (GH) secretion and dental pain threshold elevation during physical exercise was studied in healthy human subjects. Different levels of exercise (200–300 W) were produced by a cycle-ergometer. Dental pain thresholds were tested with a constant current pulp tester. In all 6 subjects dental pain thresholds and the heart rate were increased with increasing work load. Cyproheptadine did not have any significant effect on dental pain threshold elevations, although it suppressed the exercise-induced GH release. The results indicate that the exercise-induced dental pain threshold elevation is not based on GH-related stress mechanisms, since cyproheptadine did not reverse the pain threshold elevation.     

An examination of the effects of isoenergetic intragastric infusions of pure macronutrients on cold pain perception in healthy human volunteers

Our previous study demonstrated that meals, particularly when rich in fat, significantly reduced the pain induced by the cold pressor stimulus in healthy human subjects. To determine the mechanisms involved, the aim of this study was to bypass the taste and cognitive component of food and to investigate the scope of these analgesic effects with direct intragastric infusion of pure macronutrients in a group of 16 healthy human volunteers (eight male and eight female) on the response to cold-induced pain. All subjects underwent the cold pressor test (CPT) on three occasions in a counterbalanced order: before and after intragastric intubation and infusion of isoenergetic fat (10% intralipid), carbohydrate (CHO-maltodextrin), and a control infusion of isotonic saline. All solutions were of equal volume and administered at room temperature. The CPT was carried out four times on each test day, once before intubation, and 0.5, 1.5, and 2.5 h after intragastric infusion. Radial pulse and blood pressure measurements and visual analogue scales of mood/emotional state were carried out before and after each CPT. There were no significant differences in pain scores between the three test conditions, suggesting that by bypassing the cognitive and taste component of eating, the trigger for any postingestive analgesic effects of food are lost.     

Influence of skin temperature on heat pain threshold in humans

We compared the effect of skin temperature on the critical threshold temperature eliciting heat pain with the effect of skin temperature on the response latency to the first heat pain sensation in healthy human subjects. Also, we determined the effect of the duration of a heat stimulus ramp on pain threshold. Furthermore, we determined the effect of skin temperature on mechanically induced pain. We found that the latency to the first pain sensation induced by a radiant heat stimulus was significantly decreased with an increase in the skin temperature (25–35 °C). However, independent of the rate of the stimulus rise (3–10 °C/s) and independent of the stimulus location (hairy vs glabrous skin), the threshold temperature for eliciting the heat pain sensation, determined with a contact thermostimulator, was not changed by a change in the skin temperature in the same subjects. With a fast rate of stimulus rise, a higher pain threshold was obtained than with a slow rise of stimulus temperature. However, this difference was found only with subject-controlled ascending stimuli (method of limits) but not with experimenter-controlled, predetermined stimulus ramps (method of levels). The heat pain threshold was higher in the glabrous skin of the hand than in the hairy skin of the forearm. With increasing stimulus duration (2.5–10s), the threshold temperature eliciting the heat pain sensation was significantly decreased. The mechanically induced pain threshold was not influenced by the skin temperature. The results indicate that the critical temperature for eliciting heat pain is independent of the skin temperature in humans. However, a change in skin temperature is an important source of an artefactual change in heat pain sensitivity when the radiant heat method (latency or energy) is used as an index of pain sensitivity. With a method dependent on reaction time (the method of limits), the heat pain threshold was artefactually increased, with fast rates of stimulus rise due to the long delay of slowly conducting heat pain signals in reaching the brain. With an increase in the duration of the heat stimulus, the critical temperature for eliciting pain sensation was significantly decreased, which may be explained by central neuronal mechanisms (temporal summation).     

Enhanced pain perception prior to smoking cessation is associated with early relapse

Accumulated evidence suggests that nicotine induces analgesia, and endogenous pain regulatory mechanisms may be altered by chronic smoking. The extent to which individual differences in pain perception are related to smokers’ ability to abstain from smoking has not been directly examined. Seventy-one smokers who were interested in quitting completed a pre-cessation laboratory session which included the cold pressor test (CPT). Pain ratings were collected during and after CPT. Also, mood changes, cardiovascular measures, and salivary cortisol samples were evaluated prior to, during, and after CPT. Participants attended 4 weekly follow-up assessment sessions after their quit day. Cox regression analysis revealed that higher pain ratings during and after CPT predicted greater risk for smoking relapse. These results remained significant after affective and physiological responses to CPT were controlled, suggesting that pain ratings prior to smoking cessation are potentially useful in identifying smokers who are at greater risk of early smoking relapse and may reflect underlying putative risk for nicotine dependence and relapse.     

人体神经定量电流感觉检测系统的研制

电流感觉阈值测试是人体神经感觉功能的定量感觉测试方法的一种．它采用特定频率的正弦恒电流刺激人体神经末梢感受器，检测人体对电流刺激的最小感受量，用于定量评估神经功能。本文回顾了国际上电流感觉阈值测试技术的发展与现状，介绍了我们开发的人体神经定量电流感觉检测系统。该系统采用生理心理统计算法过滤人体主观感受的影响，具有双盲全自动测量功能，测量结果具有很好的重复性。     

The effect of different genres of music and silence on relaxation and anxiety: A randomized controlled trial

High stress and anxiety in healthy individuals may lead to use different pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies. The study aimed to investigate the effect of different genres of music on anxiety and relaxation in healthy participants. This study was a randomized controlled trial with a cross-over design. Forty-six healthy undergraduates participated in the study and randomly received different genres of music (Pop, Rock, Western Classical, and Persian Traditional) and silence for five consecutive days between February and June 2018. Each participant was her/his own control. Relaxation and the State Anxiety were checked with Smith Relaxation States Inventory 3 and The State Anxiety Inventory before and after listening to 15 min of music or laying down in silence. None of the five procedures were preferred for a more relaxing effect (P > 0.05). Also, none of the interventions were preferred for reduction of the state anxiety (P > 0.05). Although different genres of music, i.e., Pop, Rock, Western Classical, Persian Traditional, could reduce state anxiety and improve relaxation, they had no extra effect compared to Silence.     

The influence of auditory background stimulation (Mozart's sonata K. 448) on visual brain activity.

Twenty individuals solved a visual oddball task in two response conditions: while listening to the Mozart's sonata K. 448, and while listening to nothing. The recorded event-related potentials (ERP) were analyzed in the time and frequency domains. In the music response condition the ERP peak latencies on the left hemisphere increased, whereas on the right hemisphere a decrease of peak latencies as compared with the silence response condition was observed. In the theta, lower-1 alpha and gamma band increases in induced event-related coherences were observed while respondents solved the oddball task and listened to music, whereas a decoupling of brain areas in the gamma band was observed in the silence response condition. It is suggested that auditory background stimulation can influence visual brain activity, even if both stimuli are unrelated.     

Pain pressure threshold algometry of the abdominal wall in healthy women

The objective of this study was to determine the inter- and intra-examiner reliability of pain pressure threshold algometry at various points of the abdominal wall of healthy women. Twenty-one healthy women in menacme with a mean age of 28 ± 5.4 years (range: 19-39 years) were included. All volunteers had regular menstrual cycles (27-33 days) and were right-handed and, to the best of our knowledge, none were taking medications at the time of testing. Women with a diagnosis of depression, anxiety or other mood disturbances were excluded. Women with previous abdominal surgery, any pain condition or any evidence of inflammation, hypertension, smoking, alcoholism, or inflammatory disease were also excluded. Pain perception thresholds were assessed with a pressure algometer with digital traction and compression and a measuring capacity for 5 kg. All points were localized by palpation and marked with a felt-tipped pen and each individual was evaluated over a period of 2 days in two consecutive sessions, each session consisting of a set of 14 point measurements repeated twice by two examiners in random sequence. There was no statistically significant difference in the mean pain threshold obtained by the two examiners on 2 diferent days (examiner A: P = 1.00; examiner B: P = 0.75; Wilcoxon matched pairs test). There was excellent/good agreement between examiners for all days and all points. Our results have established baseline values to which future researchers will be able to refer. They show that pressure algometry is a reliable measure for pain perception in the abdominal wall of healthy women.     

Symptom‐related changes in current perception threshold of restless legs syndrome

Few studies have investigated the mechanisms responsible for the symptoms of restless legs syndrome (RLS). However, these studies were mainly performed during the asymptomatic period and therefore their findings might not apply to changes in sensory processing that occur during the symptomatic period. The objective of this study was to investigate the function of sensory nerve fibres in RLS patients using the current perception threshold (CPT) test during the daytime and in the presence of symptoms. Ninety‐three patients with RLS and 34 healthy controls were included in the study. RLS patients were further divided into two subgroups, those who were experiencing RLS symptoms during the CPT test (symptom+) and those without symptoms (symptom?). Demographic data, RLS rating scale score and visual analogue scale were collected. Of the 127 enrolled subjects, CPT values were significantly lower in RLS patients than in controls for all three frequencies. Among the control and RLS subgroups (53 symptom+, 40 symptom?), symptom+ patients showed lower CPT values than controls. This finding indicates a relative hyperaesthetic state in the sensory afferents of peripheral nerves in symptom+ patients. There were no significant differences between the symptom? group and controls. The significantly lower CPT values for all three frequencies in symptom+ patients suggest that central sensory processing disturbance of sensory nerve fibres’ input may be involved in the development of symptoms in RLS patients.     

A method for continuously assessing the autonomic response to music-induced emotions through HRV analysis

Interest in therapeutic applications of music has recently increased, as well as the effort to understand the relationship between music features and physiological patterns. In this study, we present a methodology for characterizing music-induced effects on the dynamics of the heart rate modulation. It consists of three steps: (i) the smoothed pseudo Wigner-Ville distribution is performed to obtain a time–frequency representation of HRV; (ii) a parametric decomposition is used to robustly estimate the time-course of spectral parameters; and (iii) statistical population analysis is used to continuously assess whether different acoustic stimuli provoke different dynamic responses. Seventy-five healthy subjects were repetitively exposed to pleasant music, sequences of Shepard tones with the same tempo as the pleasant music and unpleasant sounds overlaid with the same sequences of Shepard tones. Results show that the modification of HRV parameters are characterized by an early fast transient phase (15–20 s), followed by an almost stationary period. All kinds of stimuli provoked significant changes compared to the resting condition, while during listening to pleasant music the heart and respiratory rates were higher (for more than 80% of the duration of the stimuli, p < 10⁻⁵) and the power of the HF modulation was lower (for more than 70% of the duration of the stimuli, p < 0.05) than during listening to unpleasant stimuli.     

Effects of PRES baroreceptor stimulation on thermal and mechanical pain threshold in borderline hypertensives and normotensives

Prior studies have noted a pain relieving effect of baroreceptor stimulation and of higher tonic blood pressure in animals and humans. The present study used a new technique for the controlled, noninvasive stimulation of human carotid baroreceptors (PRES). PRES baroreceptor manipulation was delivered to both normotensive subjects (n= 11) and medication-free labile hypertensive subjects (n= 10) during both thermal and mechanical pain. Consistent with prior research, hypertensives had a higher threshold for thermal pain than did normotensives. PRES baroreceptor manipulation had no significant effect on thermal pain threshold for either group. For the mechanical pain model, the opposite results were obtained; group pain threshold did not differ, but there was a significant PRES baroreceptor stimulation effect of increasing pain threshold for both groups. Results are discussed in terms of specific features of the stimuli, dampening of pain in hypertensives, and adaptation to pain.     

60例正常人不同部位皮肤的温度觉差异

目的：探讨正常人不同部位皮肤的温度觉阈值的差异性。方法：对60例正常人进行大鱼际肌、食指、脚背皮肤的冷觉、热觉、冷痛觉、热痛觉神经定量感觉测试（QST）并进行比较分析。结果：在冷觉、热觉、热痛觉方面大鱼际肌的感觉比脚更加敏感，而冷痛觉则无明显差异；大鱼际肌皮肤温度觉比食指皮肤更敏感。结论：人体不同部位皮肤的温度觉存在差异性，但同一部位左右两侧相比则差异不明显。     

Effects of anxiety-related psychological states on music-induced analgesia in cold pressor pain responses

ContextThe analgesic effect of music has long been reported.ObjectiveTo assess how anxiety-related psychological states affect the analgesic effect of music using the cold pressor task (CPT).DesignA 3-period × 3-sequence crossover design was adopted; three conditions were used: “no sound,” “music-listening,” and “news-listening.”Setting:ParticipantsForty-nine participants were included.InterventionsAfter completing five anxiety-related psychological instruments (Anxiety Sensitivity Index [ASI]-16, ASI-Revised, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory [STAI]-S, STAI-T, and Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale-20), the participants were allocated to the low- or high-anxiety group. The high- and low-anxiety groups were defined based on cutoff points according to the distributions and characteristics of the five instruments.Main outcome measuresPain responses, such as pain tolerance time, pain intensity, and pain unpleasantness, were measured on the CPT. Pain responses in the music-listening condition were also compared to those in the other two conditions via pairwise comparisons within each anxiety group.Results: The Cronbach alpha of the five instruments ranged from 0.866 to 0.95, indicating that they were reliable. Pain responses in the music-listening condition in the low-anxiety groups based on any of the five scales were significantly different from those in the other conditions, but this effect was not found in the high-anxiety groups. This study demonstrates that anxiety-related psychological states can predict the analgesic effect of music on pain responses measured by the CPT and suggests that music may be beneficial as a pain management tool in low-anxiety groups.     

Music Listening and Stress in Daily Life—a Matter of Timing

Purpose

Despite increasing evidence suggesting that music listening in daily life has stress-reducing effects, studies mostly rely on subjective, retrospective data on music listening. Thus, the temporal dynamics underlying the stress-reducing effect of music listening remain unclear. Therefore, we aimed to examine the temporal dynamics of the associations between stress and music listening by assessing subjective and objective data on music in daily life.

Design

An exploratory Ambulatory Assessment study examining a total of 60 participants (37 women), aged 18 to 34 years (M = 22.4 years, SD = 3.5) was conducted.

Methods

For 1 week, participants answered questions on music listening and stress six times per day via an electronic diary device, which additionally objectively sampled the exact time point of music listening and its duration.

Results

Self-reports on mere music listening were associated with lower stress reports, whereas objectively assessed data was not. However, concerning duration of music listening, both subjective and objective data on music listening showed associations between a minimum of 20 min of music listening and lower stress reports. Concerning the latency, objective data on music listening revealed that the association between stress reports and music listening occurs in a time-delayed manner.

Conclusions

Although the study design does not allow for causal inferences, substantial associations among subjectively and objectively assessed data on music listening were found to differentially affect the experience of stress after music listening. In particular, when focusing on the temporal dynamics, objectively assessed data allowed for a more fine-grained analysis. In consequence, subjectively and objectively reported data on music listening should be assessed jointly when investigating effects of music listening on health. Experimental research with rigorous methodological control is required in order to corroborate our findings in a laboratory setting.