Violent and prosocial music: Evidence for the impact of lyrics and musical tone on aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Although there is a large research base on the psychological impacts of violent and prosocial visual media, there is little research addressing the impacts of violent and prosocial music, and which facets of the music have the greatest impact. Four experiments tested the impact of lyrics and/or musical tone on aggressive and prosocial behavior, and on underlying psychological processes, using purpose-built songs to avoid the effect of music-related confounds. In study one, where mildly aggressive, overtly aggressive and violent lyrics were compared to neutral lyrics, any level of lyrical aggression caused an increase in behavioral aggression, which plateaued for all three aggression conditions. Violent lyrics were better recalled than other lyrics one week later. In studies two-three no significant effects of lyrics, or of aggressive versus nonaggressive musical tone, were found on aggressive or prosocial behavior. In terms of internal states, violent lyrics increased hostility/hostile cognitions in all studies, and negatively impacted affective state in three studies. Prosocial lyrics decreased hostility/hostile cognitions in three studies, but always in tandem with another factor. Aggressive musical tone increased physiological arousal in two studies and increased negative affect in one. In study four those who listened to violent lyrics drove more aggressively on a simulated drive that included triggers for aggression. Overall, violent lyrics consistently elicited hostility/hostile cognitions and negative affect, but these did not always translate to aggressive behavior. Violent music seems more likely to elicit behavioral aggression when there are aggression triggers and a clear way to aggress. Implications are discussed.

The perceived catchiness of music affects the experience of groove.

Catchiness and groove are common phenomena when listening to popular music. Catchiness may be a potential factor for experiencing groove but quantitative evidence for such a relationship is missing. To examine whether and how catchiness influences a key component of groove-the pleasurable urge to move to music (PLUMM)-we conducted a listening experiment with 450 participants and 240 short popular music clips of drum patterns, bass lines or keys/guitar parts. We found four main results: (1) catchiness as measured in a recognition task was only weakly associated with participants' perceived catchiness of music. We showed that perceived catchiness is multi-dimensional, subjective, and strongly associated with pleasure. (2) We found a sizeable positive relationship between PLUMM and perceived catchiness. (3) However, the relationship is complex, as further analysis showed that pleasure suppresses perceived catchiness' effect on the urge to move. (4) We compared common factors that promote perceived catchiness and PLUMM and found that listener-related variables contributed similarly, while the effects of musical content diverged. Overall, our data suggests music perceived as catchy is likely to foster groove experiences.

Work-related behavior and experience patterns of music educators - a basis for intervention.

OBJECTIVES: Music educators are subjected to many physical and psychological stresses encountered in the workplace. These stresses could be counteracted by certain work-related behavior and experience patterns as personal resources to reduce the negative consequences of stress. The aim of the study was to determine the existing work-related behavioral and experiential patterns and the characteristics of the Work-Related Behavior and Experience Patterns (Arbeitsbezogenes Verhaltens- und Erlebensmuster - AVEM) questionnaire dimensions in the professional group of music educators according to age group. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 205 music educators (66.3% female) from various music schools in Germany participated in the online survey. The subjects were divided into 3 age groups (AG): AG I: ≤35 years, AG II: 36-45 years, AG III: ≥46 years. In addition to sociodemographic and occupational data, the standardized AVEM questionnaire was used according to Schaarschmidt and Fischer. The age and occupation-related data were evaluated in a correlation analysis with the expression of AVEM dimensions. RESULTS: A total of 71.4% of the music educators were ≥46 years old group. Another 12.8% belonged to AG II, and 15.8% belonged to AG III. The sex distribution in the 3 age groups was comparable (p = 0.261). The expression of all AVEM dimensions was within the reference range. The most pronounced dimension, with a stanine value of M±SD 5.2±2.15, was the willingness to spend. There was also no significant difference in the assignment to the 4 patterns in the 3 age groups (p = 0.669). Age showed a negative correlation with the experience of social support (ρ = -0.354). CONCLUSIONS: The age-independent and high intervention-requiring expressions of the AVEM risk patterns A and B led to the recommendation of workplace prevention and health promotion measures. Therefore, it seems reasonable to promote appropriate stress management measures and resilience during studies. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2024;37(2):176-93.

Effects of Music Therapy on Negative Emotions and Physiological Parameters in Patients Undergoing Colonoscopic Polypectomy: A Retrospective Study.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine the postoperative effects of music therapy on negative emotions, pain, and inflammatory and physiological parameters in patients undergoing colonoscopic polypectomy. METHODS: Patients who underwent colonoscopic polypectomy in Funan County People's Hospital between March 2020 and June 2023 were selected as the research subjects. Patients were divided into exposure (underwent music therapy) and control (did not undergo music therapy) groups. Baseline characteristics, Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) scores, physiological parameters [systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and heart rate (HR)], and inflammatory marker levels [neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR)] of patients before and after exposure to music were determined. The propensity score matching (PSM) method (1:1) was used to balance the baseline characteristics of the two groups. RESULTS: After PSM, the exposure group comprised 50 cases and the control group comprised 50 cases. The baseline characteristics were not significantly different between the two groups (P > 0.05). The postoperative SAS score of the exposure group was significantly lower than that of the control group (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, the postoperative VAS score of the exposure group was nonsignificantly lower than that of the control group (P > 0.05). Furthermore, the postoperative SBP, DBP, and HR levels of the exposure group were significantly lower than that of the control group (P < 0.05). The postoperative levels of NLR, PLR, and ESR were not significantly different between the exposure and control groups (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Music therapy exerts beneficial effects on the postoperative psychological and physiological parameters of patients undergoing colonoscopic polypectomy.

Liking music with and without sadness: Testing the direct effect hypothesis of pleasurable negative emotion.

Negative emotion evoked in listeners of music can produce intense pleasure, but we do not fully understand why. The present study addressed the question by asking participants (n = 50) to self-select a piece of sadness-evoking music that was loved. The key part of the study asked participants to imagine that the felt sadness could be removed. Overall participants reported performing the task successfully. They also indicated that the removal of the sadness reduced their liking of the music, and 82% of participants reported that the evoked sadness also adds to the enjoyment of the music. The study provided evidence for a "Direct effect hypothesis", which draws on the multicomponent model of emotion, where a component of the negative emotion is experienced as positive during music (and other aesthetic) experiences. Earlier evidence of a mediator, such as 'being moved', as the source of enjoyment was reinterpreted in light of the new findings. Instead, the present study applied a semantic overlap explanation, arguing that sadness primes emotions that share meaning with sadness, such as being-moved. The priming occurs if the overlap in meaning is sufficient. The degree of semantic overlap was defined empirically. The present study therefore suggests that mediator-based explanations need to be treated with caution both as a finding of the study, and because of analytic limitations in earlier research that are discussed in the paper.

Meaningful Media Experiences and Vaccination Message Communication: An Experimental Study with Vaccine-Hesitant Individuals.

Guided by the eudaimonic media and the health persuasion literature, the current study explores how meaningful emotions elicited from entertainment media exposure decreases anti-vaccination attitudes among vaccine-hesitant individuals. Results of a between-subjects experiment (N = 409) showed that participants who viewed meaningful music videos (vs. neutral videos) and vaccination messages embedded in the user-generated comments reported more empathy, less reactance, and less anti-vaccination attitudes. Multigroup analysis revealed that this association was held for participants who were hesitant about whether they would get fully vaccinated, but not for participants who were determined to not get vaccinated. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

The role of mood and arousal in the effect of background music on attentional state and performance during a sustained attention task.

Across two online experiments, this study explored the effect of preferred background music on attentional state and performance, as well as on mood and arousal, during a vigilance task. It extended recent laboratory findings-showing an increase in task-focus and decrease in mind-wandering states with music-to environments with more distractions around participants. Participants-people who normally listen to background music during attention-demanding tasks-completed the vigilance task in their homes both with and without their chosen music and reported their attentional state, subjective arousal, and mood valence throughout the task. Experiment 1 compared music to relative silence and Experiment 2 compared music against the backdrop of continuous noise to continuous noise alone. In both experiments, music decreased mind-wandering and increased task-focus. Unlike in previous laboratory studies, in both experiments music also led to faster reaction times while increasing low-arousal external-distraction states. Importantly, mood and arousal increased with music and were shown to mediate its effects on reaction time and for the first time attentional state, both separately and together. Serial mediation effects were mostly confined to models where mood was entered first and arousal second and were consistent with the mood-arousal account of the impact of background music listening.

The effect of music played to new birth mothers on postpartum blues: A randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Postpartum blues/postpartum maternal blues is a psychological disorder experienced by mothers with symptoms of postpartum sadness, easy crying, easy anxiety, sensitivity, indecisiveness. The study aimed to examine the effect of music played on newly delivered mothers on postpartum blues. METHODS: A prospective, two-arm, randomized controlled study was conducted on n = 82 (41 = control, 41 = music group) mothers who gave birth at term in Trakya University Health Research and Application Center Maternity Service between May and December 2023. The research data were collected through the Personal Information Form, Stein Blues Scale (SBS), and Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS). The scales used in the study were evaluated four times: postoperative 0-3 h, 12th, 24th, and 36th hours. RESULTS: The postoperative 0-3 h SBS test median of the new mothers in the music group was 19.00, and the 36th hours test median was 2.00, while the postoperative 0-3 h SBS test median of the control group was 21.00, and the 36th hour test median was 13.00. The postoperative 0-3 h EPDS test median of the new mothers in the music group was 22.00, and the 36th hours test median was 0.00, while the postoperative 0-3 h EPDS test median of the control group was 26.00, and the 36th hours test median was 10.00. A significant difference was found in the 12th, 24th, and 36th hours (p < .001). A statistically significant high positive correlation was found between EPDS and SBS in the 12th, 24th, and 36th hours (p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: In the study, it was found that music played to newly delivered mothers reduced postpartum blues and depression levels. REGISTRATION: The submission date for a clinical trial protocol is prior to completing participant recruitment and for a systematic review, prior to completing full paper screening. NCT06252155.

Predictive coding in musical anhedonia: A study of groove.

Groove, or the pleasurable urge to move to music, offers unique insight into the relationship between emotion and action. The predictive coding of music model posits that groove is linked to predictions of music formed over time, with stimuli of moderate complexity rated as most pleasurable and likely to engender movement. At the same time, listeners vary in the pleasure they derive from music listening: individuals with musical anhedonia report reduced pleasure during music listening despite no impairments in music perception and no general anhedonia. Little is known about musical anhedonics' subjective experience of groove. Here we examined the relationship between groove and music reward sensitivity. Participants (n = 287) heard drum-breaks that varied in perceived complexity, and rated each for pleasure and wanting to move. Musical anhedonics (n = 13) had significantly lower ratings compared to controls (n = 13) matched on music perception abilities and general anhedonia. However, both groups demonstrated the classic inverted-U relationship between ratings of pleasure & move and stimulus complexity, with ratings peaking for intermediately complex stimuli. Across our entire sample, pleasure ratings were most strongly related with music reward sensitivity for highly complex stimuli (i.e., there was an interaction between music reward sensitivity and stimulus complexity). Finally, the sensorimotor subscale of music reward was uniquely associated with move, but not pleasure, ratings above and beyond the five other dimensions of musical reward. Results highlight the multidimensional nature of reward sensitivity and suggest that pleasure and wanting to move are driven by overlapping but separable mechanisms.

Cognitive enrichment through art: a randomized controlled trial on the effect of music or visual arts group practice on cognitive and brain development of young children.

BACKGROUND: The optimal stimulation for brain development in the early academic years remains unclear. Current research suggests that musical training has a more profound impact on children's executive functions (EF) compared to other art forms. What is crucially lacking is a large-scale, long-term genuine randomized controlled trial (RCT) in cognitive neuroscience, comparing musical instrumental training (MIP) to another art form, and a control group (CG). This study aims to fill this gap by using machine learning to develop a multivariate model that tracks the interconnected brain and EF development during the academic years, with or without music or other art training. METHODS: The study plans to enroll 150 children aged 6-8 years and randomly assign them to three groups: Orchestra in Class (OC), Visual Arts (VA), and a control group (CG). Anticipating a 30% attrition rate, each group aims to retain at least 35 participants. The research consists of three analytical stages: 1) baseline analysis correlating EF, brain data, age, gender, and socioeconomic status, 2) comparison between groups and over time of EF brain and behavioral development and their interactions, including hypothesis testing, and 3) exploratory analysis combining behavioral and brain data. The intervention includes intensive art classes once a week, and incremental home training over two years, with the CG receiving six annual cultural outings. DISCUSSION: This study examines the potential benefits of intensive group arts education, especially contrasting music with visual arts, on EF development in children. It will investigate how artistic enrichment potentially influences the presumed typical transition from a more unified to a more multifaceted EF structure around age eight, comparing these findings against a minimally enriched active control group. This research could significantly influence the incorporation of intensive art interventions in standard curricula. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The project was accepted after peer-review by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF no. 100014_214977) on March 29, 2023. The study protocol received approval from the Cantonal Commission for Ethics in Human Research of Geneva (CCER, BASEC-ID 2023-01016), which is part of Swiss ethics, on October 25, 2023. The study is registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT05912270).

Duet synchronization interventions affect social interactions.

Humans' complex behavior, such as speech, music, or dance, requires us to coordinate our actions with external sounds as well as with social partners. The presence of a partner can influence individuals' synchronization, and, in turn, social connection with the partner may depend on the degree of synchronization. We manipulated the synchronization quality in intervention conditions to address the causal relationship between observed temporal synchrony and perceived social interaction. Pairs of musician and nonmusician participants first performed a turn-taking task consisting of alternating which partner tapped their melody in synchrony with a metronome (each tap generated the next tone in the melody). In two intervention conditions, participants attempted to synchronize their melodies simultaneously with their partner, either with normal auditory feedback (normal feedback) or randomly placed delayed feedback on 25% of melodic tones (delayed feedback). After each intervention, the turn-taking condition was repeated, and participants completed a questionnaire about connectedness, relationship, and feeling of synchronization with their partner. Results showed that partners' mean asynchronies were more negative following the delayed feedback intervention. In addition, nonmusician partners' tapping variability was larger following the delayed feedback intervention when they had the delayed feedback intervention first. Ratings of connectedness, relationship, and feeling of synchronization with their partner were reduced for all participants after the delayed feedback Intervention. We modeled participants' synchronization performance in the post-intervention turn-taking conditions using delay-coupling oscillator models. Reductions in synchronization performance after delayed feedback intervention were reflected in reduced coupling strength. These findings suggest that turn-taking synchronization performance and social connectedness are altered following short interventions that disrupt synchronization with a partner.

Neural correlates of musical familiarity: a functional magnetic resonance study.

Existing neuroimaging studies on neural correlates of musical familiarity often employ a familiar vs. unfamiliar contrast analysis. This singular analytical approach reveals associations between explicit musical memory and musical familiarity. However, is the neural activity associated with musical familiarity solely related to explicit musical memory, or could it also be related to implicit musical memory? To address this, we presented 130 song excerpts of varying familiarity to 21 participants. While acquiring their brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we asked the participants to rate the familiarity of each song on a five-point scale. To comprehensively analyze the neural correlates of musical familiarity, we examined it from four perspectives: the intensity of local neural activity, patterns of local neural activity, global neural activity patterns, and functional connectivity. The results from these four approaches were consistent and revealed that musical familiarity is related to the activity of both explicit and implicit musical memory networks. Our findings suggest that: (1) musical familiarity is also associated with implicit musical memory, and (2) there is a cooperative and competitive interaction between the two types of musical memory in the perception of music.

Elevator music as a tool for the quantitative characterization of reward.

While certain musical genres and songs are widely popular, there is still large variability in the music that individuals find rewarding or emotional, even among those with a similar musical enculturation. Interestingly, there is one Western genre that is intended to attract minimal attention and evoke a mild emotional response: elevator music. In a series of behavioral experiments, we show that elevator music consistently elicits low pleasure and surprise. Participants reported elevator music as being less pleasurable than music from popular genres, even when participants did not regularly listen to the comparison genre. Participants reported elevator music to be familiar even when they had not explicitly heard the presented song before. Computational and behavioral measures of surprisal showed that elevator music was less surprising, and thus more predictable, than other well-known genres. Elevator music covers of popular songs were rated as less pleasurable, surprising, and arousing than their original counterparts. Finally, we used elevator music as a control for self-selected rewarding songs in a proof-of-concept physiological (electrodermal activity and piloerection) experiment. Our results suggest that elevator music elicits low emotional responses consistently across Western music listeners, making it a unique control stimulus for studying musical novelty, pleasure, and surprise.

Song lyrics have become simpler and more repetitive over the last five decades.

Music is ubiquitous in our everyday lives, and lyrics play an integral role when we listen to music. The complex relationships between lyrical content, its temporal evolution over the last decades, and genre-specific variations, however, are yet to be fully understood. In this work, we investigate the dynamics of English lyrics of Western, popular music over five decades and five genres, using a wide set of lyrics descriptors, including lyrical complexity, structure, emotion, and popularity. We find that pop music lyrics have become simpler and easier to comprehend over time: not only does the lexical complexity of lyrics decrease (for instance, captured by vocabulary richness or readability of lyrics), but we also observe that the structural complexity (for instance, the repetitiveness of lyrics) has decreased. In addition, we confirm previous analyses showing that the emotion described by lyrics has become more negative and that lyrics have become more personal over the last five decades. Finally, a comparison of lyrics view counts and listening counts shows that when it comes to the listeners' interest in lyrics, for instance, rock fans mostly enjoy lyrics from older songs; country fans are more interested in new songs' lyrics.

The effects of music and auditory stimulation on autonomic arousal, cognition and attention: A systematic review.

According to the arousal-mood hypothesis, changes in arousal and mood when exposed to auditory stimulation underlie the detrimental effects or improvements in cognitive performance. Findings supporting or against this hypothesis are, however, often based on subjective ratings of arousal rather than autonomic/physiological indices of arousal. To assess the arousal-mood hypothesis, we carried out a systematic review of the literature on 31 studies investigating cardiac, electrodermal, and pupillometry measures when exposed to different types of auditory stimulation (music, ambient noise, white noise, and binaural beats) in relation to cognitive performance. Our review suggests that the effects of music, noise, or binaural beats on cardiac, electrodermal, and pupillometry measures in relation to cognitive performance are either mixed or insufficient to draw conclusions. Importantly, the evidence for or against the arousal-mood hypothesis is at best indirect because autonomic arousal and cognitive performance are often considered separately. Future research is needed to directly evaluate the effects of auditory stimulation on autonomic arousal and cognitive performance holistically.

In my life: memory, self and The Beatles.

In a large-scale study, we asked people for their memories of The Beatles. Over four thousand respondents completed an online questionnaire. The memory could be related to a song, album, event, TV, film, or even a personal encounter. Respondents judged the age at which the event remembered had occurred and rated the memory for vividness, emotional intensity, valence and rehearsal. We found 38% of the memories were classified as "seeing The Beatles live", 25% "buying Beatles music", 20% "love of The Beatles" and 17% of the memories were "listening to Beatles songs with other people" - what we refer to as cascading memories. Among the younger respondents (aged 26 and under), 84% of the memories were cascading in nature. The memories dated to what we term the "self-defining period" in autobiographical memory (previously termed "the reminiscence bump"), with a mean age-at-encoding of 13.6 years, which is consistent with other studies of memories associated with music. We propose that these memories reflect the formation of generational identity [Mannheim, K. (1952). The problem of generations. In K. Mannheim (Ed.), Essays on the sociology knowledge (pp. 276-321). Routledge & Keegan Paul].

Music and the mind.

When I was chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I tried never to miss the annual concert of the Triangle Youth Symphony. When people asked me why I was such a regular, I complimented the music but also suggested that there were potential future college science majors on the stage. The strong correlation between scientific and musical ability is an association familiar to many scientists, but in recent years, the connections between music and the mind have begun receiving broader attention, partly because of an unexpected partnership between the former long-time director of the US National Institutes of Health Francis Collins, and soprano opera superstar Renée Fleming. I caught up with Collins and Fleming for an extended chat about their shared curiosity regarding the science of music and health.

[Tuning in addictology, the story of a shared musical experience]. / Accordage en addictologie, récit d'une expérience musicale partagée.

Music can be used as a therapeutic tool with people suffering from complex addictions and traumas. By playing together, the patient and care team create a transitional space conducive to emotional attunement and trust. This shared experience facilitates connection and engagement in the therapeutic relationship, which conveys a sense of security. Music is a powerful tool in the treatment of addiction and trauma. It helps to repair damaged bonds and develop empathy, cooperation and creativity within the care team.

A qualitative exploration of 40 Hz sound and music for older adults with mild cognitive impairment.

Emerging evidence suggests that 40 Hz auditory stimulation may benefit cognition. Nested within a randomized crossover trial, this qualitative study evaluates the acceptability and experience of three auditory interventions-self-selected music, 40 Hz sound, and a novel combination, termed 40 Hz music-in individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals with MCI post-intervention exposure. Findings indicated a preference for self-selected music due to its memory-boosting and emotional benefits, while responses to 40 Hz sound were mixed, with several participants reporting discomfort. The composite 40 Hz music intervention showed promise, striking a balance by enhancing user experience and mitigating the 40 Hz sound's negative aspects. Engagement was influenced by personal music interests, listening routines, and support networks. This study highlights the potential of integrating 40 Hz sound with personalized music to offer a more acceptable 40 Hz auditory intervention for cognition in older adults with MCI.