Mas-Herrero Ernest, Singer Neomi, Ferreri Laura, McPhee Michael, Zatorre Robert J, Ripollés Pablo
Department of Cognition, Development and Education Psychology, Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Cognition and Brain Plasticity Unit, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2023 Jan;1519(1):186-198. doi: 10.1111/nyas.14931. Epub 2022 Nov 19.
The COVID-19 pandemic has deeply affected the mental health of millions of people. We assessed which of many leisure activities correlated with positive mental health outputs, with particular attention to music, which has been reported to be important for coping with the psychological burden of the pandemic. Questionnaire data from about 1000 individuals primarily from Italy, Spain, and the United States during May-June 2020 show that people picked music activities (listening to, playing, singing, etc.) most often as the leisure experiences that helped them the most to cope with psychological distress related with the pandemic. During the pandemic, hours of engagement in music and food-related activities were associated with lower depressive symptoms. The negative correlation between music and depression was mediated by individual differences in sensitivity to reward, whereas the correlation between food-related activities and improved mental health outputs was explained by differences in emotion suppression strategies. Our results, while correlational, suggest that engaging in music activities could be related to improved well-being with the underlying mechanism being related to reward, consistent with neuroscience findings. Our data have practical significance in pointing to effective strategies to cope with mental health issues beyond those related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
新冠疫情严重影响了数百万人的心理健康。我们评估了众多休闲活动中哪些与积极的心理健康结果相关，尤其关注音乐，据报道音乐对于应对疫情带来的心理负担很重要。2020年5月至6月期间，来自意大利、西班牙和美国的约1000人的问卷调查数据显示，人们最常选择音乐活动（听音乐、演奏、唱歌等）作为最有助于他们应对与疫情相关心理困扰的休闲体验。在疫情期间，参与音乐和与食物相关活动的时长与较低的抑郁症状相关。音乐与抑郁之间的负相关是由对奖励的敏感度的个体差异介导的，而与食物相关活动和改善的心理健康结果之间的相关性则是由情绪抑制策略的差异来解释的。我们的结果虽然是相关性的，但表明参与音乐活动可能与幸福感的提升有关，其潜在机制与奖励相关，这与神经科学研究结果一致。我们的数据对于指出应对心理健康问题的有效策略具有实际意义，这些策略超出了与新冠疫情相关的范围。
