Effects of Excitative and Sedative Music on Subjective and Physiological Relaxation
Abstract
Previous investigations using heart rate as a measure have not clarified the excitative-sedative effects of music. One of the sources of this failure was considered to be use of the index of heart rate. The present purpose was to examine the excitative-sedative effect of music on indices of the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous activities through spectral analysis of heart rate. The presented stimuli were three excitative musical pieces and three sedative ones. Subjective feelings about music were measured by an adjective checklist concerning musical activity. Heart-rate variabilities divided into two components of Low Frequency, mainly affected by the sympathetic nervous system and of High Frequency, mainly affected by the parasympathetic nervous system. Six types of heart-rate indices were employed: (1) mean increments from posttrial base, (2) coefficient of variances of heart rate, (3) mean powers of Low Frequency, (4) coefficient of component variances of Low Frequency, (5) mean powers of High Frequency, and (6) coefficient of component variances of High Frequency. From the factor analysis based on responses to an adjective checklist, there was a single major activity factor. Activity scores showed some were high during excitative pieces and others low during sedative ones. For heart rate, excitative-sedative effects of music were observed only in indices related to High Frequency. This result suggests that musical effect was observed in measures of the parasympathetic nervous system but not in the sympathetic nervous system.
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Music listening might be effective in accelerating the recovery process of the parasympathetic branch of the ANS.
“It appears that music listening might be effective in accelerating the recovery process of the parasympathetic branch of the ANS.”
From The Effect of Music on the Human Stress Response (2013) · cites this paper as [87]
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- Authors
- Iwanaga, M., & Tsukamoto, M.
- Affiliations
- Hiroshima University (JP)
- Graduate School of Biosphere Sciences
- Corresponding author
- Iwanaga, Makoto
- Venue
- Perceptual and Motor Skills
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 1997-08
- Volume
- 85
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 287-296
- ISSN
- 0031-5125 (ISSN-L)
- 1558-688X
- OpenAlex
- W2050297789
- Cited by
- 50
- References
- 25
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 4 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 0.71
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Perceptual and Motor Skills (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Music Therapy and Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Music Perception
- Keywords
- music, sedative music, relaxation, heart rate variability, parasympathetic nervous system, sympathetic nervous system, spectral analysis of heart rate
- MeSH terms
- Acoustic Stimulation, Adult, Auditory Perception, Female, Humans, Music, Relaxation
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