title: Do you hear the same? Cardiorespiratory responses between mothers and infants during tonal and atonal music.
abstract: This study examined the effects of tonal and atonal music on respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) in 40 mothers and their 3-month-old infants. The tonal music fragment was composed using the structure of a harmonic series that corresponds with the pitch ratio characteristics of mother-infant vocal dialogues. The atonal fragment did not correspond with a tonal structure. Mother-infant ECG and respiration were registered along with simultaneous video recordings. RR-interval, respiration rate, and RSA were calculated. RSA was corrected for any confounding respiratory and motor activities. The results showed that the infants' and the mothers' RSA-responses to the tonal and atonal music differed. The infants showed significantly higher RSA-levels during the tonal fragment than during the atonal fragment and baseline, suggesting increased vagal activity during tonal music. The mothers showed RSA-responses that were equal to their infants only when the infants were lying close to their bodies and when they heard the difference between the two fragments, preferring the tonal above the atonal fragment. The results are discussed with regard to music-related topics, psychophysiological integration and mother-infant vocal interaction processes.
authors.affiliation: Research Group Interpersonal, Discursive and Narrative Studies (IDNS), Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium; VIPER Research Unit, Royal Military Academy (RMA), Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Martine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Van Puyvelde
authors.affiliation: Research Group Interpersonal, Discursive and Narrative Studies (IDNS), Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium; Universidad Católica Boliviana "San Pablo", La Paz (UCB), Bolivia.
authors.forename: Gerrit
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Loots
authors.affiliation: Research Group Interpersonal, Discursive and Narrative Studies (IDNS), Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Pol
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vanfleteren
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematical Modeling, Statistics and Bio informatics, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, University of Ghent (UG), Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Joris
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Meys
authors.affiliation: Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand; Faculty of Medicine and Bioscience, James Cook University, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Simcock
authors.affiliation: VIPER Research Unit, Royal Military Academy (RMA), Brussels, Belgium; Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pattyn
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001146:Arrhythmia, Sinus / Q000523:psychology*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations / Q000523:psychology*; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology; D009146:Music / Q000523:psychology*; D046709:Pattern Recognition, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D056152:Respiratory Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D014630:Vagus Nerve / Q000502:physiology; D014741:Video Recording