title: Stress Recovery Effects of High- and Low-Frequency Amplified Music on Heart Rate Variability.
abstract: Sounds can induce autonomic responses in listeners. However, the modulatory effect of specific frequency components of music is not fully understood. Here, we examined the role of the frequency component of music on autonomic responses. Specifically, we presented music that had been amplified in the high- or low-frequency domains. Twelve healthy women listened to white noise, a stress-inducing noise, and then one of three versions of a piece of music: original, low-, or high-frequency amplified. To measure autonomic response, we calculated the high-frequency normalized unit (HFnu), low-frequency normalized unit, and the LF/HF ratio from the heart rate using electrocardiography. We defined the stress recovery ratio as the value obtained after participants listened to music following scratching noise, normalized by the value obtained after participants listened to white noise after the stress noise, in terms of the HFnu, low-frequency normalized unit, LF/HF ratio, and heart rate. Results indicated that high-frequency amplified music had the highest HFnu of the three versions. The stress recovery ratio of HFnu under the high-frequency amplified stimulus was significantly larger than that under the low-frequency stimulus. Our results suggest that the high-frequency component of music plays a greater role in stress relief than low-frequency components.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, School of Health Sciences, Tokai University, Kanagawa, Japan; Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshie
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0023-3643
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nakajima
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan; Department of Rehabilitation, Teikyo University Chiba Medical Center, Chiba, Japan.
authors.forename: Naofumi
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7974-7777
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Core Ethics and Frontier Sciences, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan.
authors.forename: Tatsuya
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7783-1599
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mima
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan; Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Tohoku University Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: Shin-Ichi
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-9035-2808
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Izumi