One-week exposure to South Indian Classical music clip having incremental variation in tempo and octave promotes better anxiety reduction among medical students – an EEG based study
Authors: Sharma Sushma , Sasidharan Arun , Marigowda Vrinda , Vijay Mohini , Sharma Sumit , Mukundan Chetan Satyajit , Pandit Lakshmi 
Published: June 2019

1.

Several scientific studies using Western classical music and some using Indian classical music have reported benefits of listening to musical pieces of specific ‘genre’ or ’Raga’, in terms of stress reduction and mental well-being. Within the realm of a Raga, presentation of musical pieces varies in terms of low-level musical components (like tempo, octave, timbre, etc.), and yet there is hardly any research on their effect. A commonly preferred musical pattern in Carnatic classical music is to have incremental modulations in tempo and octave (‘Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi’), and we wanted to examine whether this could have better anxiolytic effect than music without such modulations.

Accordingly, in the current study, we exposed 21 male undergraduate medical students to a custom recorded South Indian classical music clip for 1 week (8 minutes clip; Raaga ‘Kaapi’; only two instruments – ‘Violin’ and ‘Mridangam’; listened thrice daily for 6 days). One set of the participants (Varying Music; n=11) listened to a version that had the incremental variations, whereas the other set (Stable Music; n=10) listened to a version without such variations. On all 6 days, one of the music listening sessions was conducted in the lab while collecting electroencephalography (EEG; 32 channels) and electrocardiography (ECG; 1 channel) data. Psychological assessment for anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory - STAI and Beck Anxiety Inventory - BAI) was conducted before (day 1) and after (day 6) the intervention. Physiological parameters studied included power spectrum across the scalp in delta, alpha, beta, theta and gamma bands from EEG and heart rate variability (HRV) from ECG, during the baseline recordings of day 1 and day 6 of intervention.

Our results show that participants when exposed to varying music showed significant reduction in anxiety, in contrast to stable music or silence intervention. A global examination of power spectral changes showed a stark contrast between stable and varying music intervention in comparison to silence - former showing greater increase in higher frequencies whereas latter showing prominent decrease especially in lower frequencies, both in bilateral temporo-parieto-occipital regions. A more detailed spectral analysis in frontal region revealed that both music intervention showed greater left-dominant alpha/beta asymmetry (i.e., greater right brain activation) and decrease in overall midline power (i.e., lower default mode network or DMN activity), when compared to silence intervention. Interestingly, stable music resulted in more left asymmetry, whereas, varying music showed more midline power reduction. Both music intervention also didn’t show the reduction in HRV parameters that was associated with silence intervention.

We speculate that, the enhancement in ‘mind calming effect’ of Kaapi raaga when presented with incremental variations, could be brought about by a balanced switching between a heightened mind wandering state with ‘attention to self’ during the lower-slower portions and a reduced mind wandering state with ‘attention to music’ during the higher-faster portions of the music. Such a ‘dynamic mind wandering’ exercise would allow training one’s creative thinking as well as sustained attention, during the respective high and low mind wandering states - both helping prevent ruminating thoughts. Therefore, musical properties such as tempo and octave have non-trivial influence on the various neurological and psychological mechanisms underlying stress management. Considering the impact of this finding in selection of music clips for music therapy, further studies with larger sample size is warranted.