Mozart's and Bach's music yielded little relaxation effect as indicated HR, BP, and autonomic nervous activity
Authors: Hoshi Junko , Yang Hongxia , Sun Xinru , Tanno Hiromasa , Kanno Emi , Maruyama Ryoko 
Published: June 2021

Background

Since the Mozart effect was first reported in 1993, it has been commonly proposed that listening to music has beneficial effects on physical and mental health. The putative relaxation effect of Mozart's music has been exploited for commercial purposes. Moreover, it has been reported that Bach's music has a relaxation similar to Mozart's music. Despite these widespread claims, few scientific or clinical investigations have shown compelling evidence demonstrating relaxation effects of Mozart's and/or Bach's music.

Objective

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of Mozart's Sonata for Four Hands in D‐major (K448) and Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No.4 in G‐major (BWV1049) on heart rate (HR), blood pressure (BP), and autonomic nervous activity in healthy young adults.

Methods

We enrolled seventeen healthy young adults with an average age of 21.9 ± 0.9 years in our study. After 10 minutes of rest, all volunteers underwent three tasks in a randomized order: an examination to induce a mental work load and two 8‐minute intervals of music listening. The control group underwent two 8‐minute periods of silence rather than music. We assessed the electrocardiogram continuously from the start of each experiment to completion. Spectral analysis was performed to determine the low frequency (LF, 0.04–0.15 Hz) and high frequency (HF, 0.15–0.40 Hz) spectral components of heart late variability (HRV). The HF component was used as an index of parasympathetic nervous activity, and the ratio of LF to HF components (LF/HF) was used as an index of sympathetic nervous activity. Additionally, we measured BP before and after each workload‐inducing examination, and after each music‐listening or silence period. The selected music consisted of K448 and BWV1049. All data are expressed as mean ± SE. One‐way repeated‐measures ANOVA and multiple comparison tests were performed to compare each index. A value of P < 0.05 was considered significant.

Results

There were significant decrease in HR and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) upon listening to K448 and BWV1049, or during silence in the case of control, but no significant change in systolic blood pressure (SBP) in any condition. HF spectral components of HRV showed insignificant changes in BWV1049 and control; however, it was significantly decreased in K448. LF/HF was not significantly lower after the examination compared to other task conditions in the K448, BWV1049, or control groups. There were no significant differences in the rate of change in HR, SBP, DBP, HF, and LF/HF during K448, BWV1049, or silence (control).

Conclusion

We did not identify significant changes in HR, BP, or LF/HF in healthy young adults while they listened to K448 or BWV1049. However, HF did decrease after listening to K448. Overall, our findings suggested that Mozart's and Bach's music yielded little relaxation effect as indicated HR, BP, and autonomic nervous activity.

This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.