Krabs Roland Uwe, Enk Ronny, Teich Niels, Koelsch Stefan
Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
Group practice for Digestive and Metabolic Diseases, Leipzig, Germany.
PLoS One. 2015 May 8;10(5):e0126224. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0126224. eCollection 2015.
Music can evoke strong emotions and thus elicit significant autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses. However, previous studies investigating music-evoked ANS effects produced inconsistent results. In particular, it is not clear (a) whether simply a musical tactus (without common emotional components of music) is sufficient to elicit ANS effects; (b) whether changes in the tempo of a musical piece contribute to the ANS effects; (c) whether emotional valence of music influences ANS effects; and (d) whether music-elicited ANS effects are comparable in healthy subjects and patients with Crohn´s disease (CD, an inflammatory bowel disease suspected to be associated with autonomic dysfunction).
To address these issues, three experiments were conducted, with a total of n = 138 healthy subjects and n = 19 CD patients. Heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), and electrodermal activity (EDA) were recorded while participants listened to joyful pleasant music, isochronous tones, and unpleasant control stimuli.
Compared to silence, both pleasant music and unpleasant control stimuli elicited an increase in HR and a decrease in a variety of HRV parameters. Surprisingly, similar ANS effects were elicited by isochronous tones (i.e., simply by a tactus). ANS effects did not differ between pleasant and unpleasant stimuli, and different tempi of the music did not entrain ANS activity. Finally, music-evoked ANS effects did not differ between healthy individuals and CD patients.
The isochronous pulse of music (i.e., the tactus) is a major factor of music-evoked ANS effects. These ANS effects are characterized by increased sympathetic activity. The emotional valence of a musical piece contributes surprisingly little to the ANS activity changes evoked by that piece.
音乐能够唤起强烈的情感，从而引发显著的自主神经系统（ANS）反应。然而，先前研究音乐诱发的自主神经系统效应的结果并不一致。具体而言，尚不清楚：（a）仅仅是音乐节拍（不包含音乐的常见情感成分）是否足以引发自主神经系统效应；（b）音乐作品节奏的变化是否会对自主神经系统效应产生影响；（c）音乐的情感效价是否会影响自主神经系统效应；以及（d）在健康受试者和克罗恩病（CD，一种怀疑与自主神经功能障碍有关的炎症性肠病）患者中，音乐诱发的自主神经系统效应是否具有可比性。
为解决这些问题，进行了三项实验，共有n = 138名健康受试者和n = 19名克罗恩病患者参与。在参与者聆听愉悦的音乐、等时音调以及不愉快的对照刺激时，记录心率（HR）、心率变异性（HRV）和皮肤电活动（EDA）。
与安静状态相比，愉悦的音乐和不愉快的对照刺激均引发了心率升高以及多种心率变异性参数降低。令人惊讶的是，等时音调（即仅仅是节拍）也引发了类似的自主神经系统效应。愉悦和不愉快刺激引发的自主神经系统效应并无差异，且音乐的不同节奏并未带动自主神经系统活动。最后，健康个体和克罗恩病患者中音乐诱发的自主神经系统效应并无差异。
音乐的等时脉冲（即节拍）是音乐诱发自主神经系统效应的主要因素。这些自主神经系统效应的特征是交感神经活动增强。音乐作品的情感效价对该作品引发的自主神经系统活动变化的贡献出奇地小。
