Opera trainees’ cognitive functioning is associated with physiological stress during performance
Open accessAbstract
In an opera performance, singers must perform difficult musical repertoire at a high level while dealing with the stress of standing before a large audience. Previous literature suggests that individuals with better cognitive functions experience less stress. During a music performance such functions, especially attention, memory, and executive function, are in high demand, suggesting that cognitive functions may play a role in music performance. This study used physiological and cognitive measures to examine this phenomenon in opera performance. Cardiac activity data were collected from 24 opera trainees during a resting-state period before and during a real-life performance. Heart-rate variability (HRV) was used as an indicator of physiological stress, such that higher HRV indicates lower stress. Standardized neuropsychological tests were used to measure attention (IVA-2), memory (CVLT-3, WMS-IV), and executive function (Trail Making Test). Results showed cognitive function- and state-specific relationships between HRV and cognitive function: HRV during the resting state had a positive correlation with attention, while HRV during a performance had a positive correlation with executive function. These results suggest that greater cognitive function is related to lower stress during opera performance. The findings of this study provide initial evidence for a relationship between cognitive functions and music performance stress in opera trainees.
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Functional vocal complaints in teachers have been associated with reduced heart rate variability.
“In addition, functional vocal complaints in teachers have been associated with reduced HRV [19,20].”
From Mapping the Neurophysiological Link Between Voice and Autonomic Function: A Scoping Review (2025) · cites this paper as [19]
The paper’s Abstract discusses lower HRV as an indicator of stress, and its Discussion addresses HRV in opera trainees and singers. Neither passage addresses functional vocal complaints in teachers or an association between those complaints and reduced HRV. Searches for the claim and for teachers’ voice complaints found no such passage in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.76)
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Cites
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“Although controlling for respiration is generally thought to be important (Laborde et al., 2017), there is evidence that respiration rate need not be controlled to obtain accurate HRV measurements (Denver et al., 2007).”
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“Although previous research has shown that HRV is related to verbal (Gillie et al., 2014) but not visual memory (Shah et al., 2011), we found no relation between HRV and verbal memory in our study, and a negative relationship between resting-state SDNN and visual memory.”
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Sorted by citations
Mapping the Neurophysiological Link Between Voice and Autonomic Function: A Scoping Review
Morales-Luque, C., Carrillo-Franco, L., López-González, M. V., González-García, M., & Dawid-Milner, M. S. (2025) · Biology · doi:10.3390/biology14101382 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
- Authors
- Motamed Yeganeh, N., McKee, T., Werker, J. F., Hermiston, N., Boyd, L. A., & Cui, A.-X.
- Affiliations
- The University of British Columbia, Canada
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- University of Vienna (AT)
- Venue
- Musicae Scientiae
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2023-07-10
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 365-374
- ISSN
- 1029-8649 (ISSN-L)
- 2045-4147
- PMC
- PMC11108751
- OpenAlex
- W4383912369
- Cited by
- 4
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3
- FWCI
- 11.55
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Musicae Scientiae (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Music › Diverse Music Education Insights
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Sport Psychology and Performance
- Keywords
- opera singers, cognitive function, heart rate variability, physiological stress, attention, memory, executive function, performance anxiety
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