Ueberholz Rhiannon, Glassman Harley, Mallik Adiel, Russo Frank A
Department of Psychology, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Psychology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
BMJ Open. 2025 Jun 17;15(6):e094784. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-094784.
Undergraduate students report a high level of trait anxiety, which is a risk factor for further psychological decline if unmanaged. Music-based interventions are cost-effective and have been found to improve indices of anxiety. More recently, music with auditory beat stimulation (ABS) has been shown to improve symptoms of anxiety to a greater extent than music alone. While there is limited empirical evidence, music interventions with ABS may also be effective at targeting neurophysiological markers of anxiety. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a novel music with ABS intervention on self-report and neurophysiological indices of anxiety in undergraduate students with trait anxiety. It is hypothesised that relative to a pink noise control, listening to music with ABS will lower self-reported anxiety, reduce salivary cortisol, increase heart rate variability, increase theta and alpha-band electroencephalography (EEG) power and decrease beta and gamma-band EEG power.
Fifty Canadian undergraduate students who self-report experiencing anxiety will be recruited for this two-arm randomised controlled trial. Participants will be randomised to a single music session with ABS or pink noise; each intervention ranges from 24 min to 27 min. Outcomes will be assessed at baseline and immediately following the intervention and will be self-reported anxiety and affect (the State-Trait Inventory of Cognitive and Somatic Anxiety and the Self-Assessment Manikin), salivary cortisol, heart rate variability measured by ECG and cortical measures of anxiety (measured by EEG). Repeated measures analyses of covariance will be performed to evaluate the effect of condition assignment on outcome measures.
This study will be conducted under the Declaration of Helsinki. This study was approved by the Toronto Metropolitan University Research Ethics Board (REB-2020-068) and registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT05442086). The findings of this study will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
NCT05442086.
本科生报告显示出较高水平的特质焦虑，如果不加以控制，这是进一步心理衰退的一个风险因素。基于音乐的干预措施具有成本效益，并且已被发现可改善焦虑指标。最近，具有听觉节拍刺激（ABS）的音乐已被证明比单纯的音乐能在更大程度上改善焦虑症状。虽然实证证据有限，但具有ABS的音乐干预措施可能在针对焦虑的神经生理标志物方面也有效。本研究的目的是评估一种新型的具有ABS的音乐干预对特质焦虑的本科生自我报告和焦虑神经生理指标的有效性。假设相对于粉红噪声对照，聆听具有ABS的音乐将降低自我报告的焦虑，降低唾液皮质醇水平，增加心率变异性，增加θ波和α波频段脑电图（EEG）功率，并降低β波和γ波频段EEG功率。
将招募50名自我报告有焦虑经历的加拿大本科生参与这项双臂随机对照试验。参与者将被随机分配到接受一次具有ABS的音乐疗程或粉红噪声；每次干预时长为24分钟至27分钟。将在基线时以及干预后立即评估结果，评估内容包括自我报告的焦虑和情感（认知与躯体焦虑状态 -特质量表和自我评估人体模型）、唾液皮质醇、通过心电图测量的心率变异性以及焦虑的皮质测量指标（通过EEG测量）。将进行重复测量协方差分析，以评估条件分配对结果测量的影响。
本研究将按照《赫尔辛基宣言》进行。本研究已获得多伦多都会大学研究伦理委员会（REB - 2020 - 068）批准，并在ClinicalTrials.gov上注册（NCT05442086）。本研究的结果将发表在同行评审期刊上。
NCT05442086。
