Institute of National Security, Center on Translational Neuroscience, Minzu University of China, Beijing, China.
School of Ethnology and Sociology, Minzu University of China, Beijing, China.
Transl Psychiatry. 2023 Oct 12;13(1):317. doi: 10.1038/s41398-023-02606-z.
Depression is the most prevalent psychiatric disorder worldwide and remains incurable; however, there is little research on its prevention. The leading cause of depression is stress, and music has been hypothesized to alleviate stress. To examine the potential beneficial effects of music on stress and depression, we subjected mice to chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS) during the day and music at night. Strikingly, our results indicated that music completely prevented CUMS-induced depression and anxiety-like behaviors in mice, as assessed by the open field, tail suspension, sucrose preference, novelty suppressed feeding, and elevated plus maze tests. We found that listening to music restored serum corticosterone levels in CUMS mice, which may contribute to the beneficial effects of music on the mouse brain, including the restoration of BDNF and Bcl-2 levels. Furthermore, listening to music prevented CUMS-induced oxidative stress in the serum, prefrontal cortex, and hippocampus of mice. Moreover, the CUMS-induced inflammatory responses in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of mice were prevented by listening to music. Taken together, we have demonstrated for the first time in mice experiments that listening to music prevents stress-induced depression and anxiety-like behaviors in mice. Music may restore hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis homeostasis, preventing oxidative stress, inflammation, and neurotrophic factor deficits, which had led to the observed phenotypes in CUMS mice.
抑郁症是全球最普遍的精神疾病，且至今仍无法治愈；然而，针对其预防的研究却很少。抑郁症的主要病因是压力，而音乐则被假设可以缓解压力。为了检验音乐对压力和抑郁症的潜在有益影响，我们在白天让小鼠经历慢性不可预测轻度应激（CUMS），晚上则让它们听音乐。令人惊讶的是，我们的结果表明，音乐完全预防了 CUMS 诱导的小鼠抑郁和焦虑样行为，通过旷场、悬尾、糖水偏好、新异抑制摄食和高架十字迷宫等测试评估。我们发现，听音乐可以恢复 CUMS 小鼠的血清皮质酮水平，这可能有助于音乐对小鼠大脑产生有益影响，包括恢复 BDNF 和 Bcl-2 水平。此外，听音乐可以预防 CUMS 诱导的小鼠血清、前额叶皮层和海马中的氧化应激。而且，听音乐还可以预防 CUMS 诱导的小鼠前额叶皮层和海马中的炎症反应。综上所述，我们首次在小鼠实验中证明，听音乐可以预防应激诱导的小鼠抑郁和焦虑样行为。音乐可能恢复下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺轴的稳态，防止氧化应激、炎症和神经营养因子缺乏，这些正是导致 CUMS 小鼠出现上述表型的原因。
