Why the study?
Does listening to specific musical genre selections affect heart rate variability in university students compared to silence?
Does listening to specific musical genre selections affect heart rate variability in university students compared to silence?
Listening to music, regardless of whether it is liked or disliked, decreases heart rate variability compared to silence, suggesting HRV reflects mental engagement rather than emotional response.
University students ( N = 30) individually listened to the Billboard 100 top-ranked musical selection for their most and least liked musical genre. Two minutes of silence preceded each musical listening condition, and heart rate variability (HRV) was recorded throughout. All HRV measures decreased during music listening as compared with silence. Dependent t-tests found significant decreases for beats per minute ( p < .01, like; p < .001, dislike) and low frequency ( p < .01, like; p < .05, dislike). A significant decrease in low-frequency/high-frequency ratio ( p < .05) was found for the dislike–music listening condition. A sign test showed no significant difference in the number of mean readings that increased or decreased for either music listening condition. Findings may support previous research that HRV decreases during mentally engaging tasks but may not support previous research that HRV readings could be a measure of emotional responding.
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Evelyn K. Orman (2011) studied this question.
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