Music therapy on heart rate variability

Abstract

Music has good effects on easing pressure and treating depression. However, at present, the evaluation of the effect of music therapy mainly depends on a number of subjective criteria, yet there is no appropriate objective evaluation standard. Some studies have suggested that: Heart rate variability can be used to assess the activity of sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic nervous system. Since music can affect the activity of autonomic nervous system, some parameters of heart rate variability thus can be used as indicators to measure the effect of music therapy. Our study focused on the influence of music therapy on heart rate variability. Experiments were performed upon 16 undergraduates and 4 middle-aged women. As the music treatment goes on, subjectives show significant relaxation. Heart rate variability in very low frequency component (VLF), low frequency component (LF), high frequency component (HF) increase significantly after music treatment, while the LF / HF ratio has no significant change. Approximate entropy after music therapy is also lower than before. These studies suggest that relaxing music can increase the activity of parasympathetic nervous system.