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Undergraduate students report a high level of trait anxiety, which is a risk factor for further psychological decline if unmanaged. Common psychological treatments such as cognitive-behavioural therapy are highly effective in improving symptoms of anxiety for those who are motivated to engage in psychotherapy, but they can be costly. Music-based interventions are cost-effective and have been found to improve indices of anxiety, specifically lower self-reported distress, reduced cortisol, and higher heart rate variability. More recently, music with auditory beat stimulation (ABS) has been shown to improve symptoms of anxiety to a greater extent than music alone. While there is limited empirical evidence, music interventions with ABS may also be effective at targeting neurophysiological markers of anxiety. In this exploratory trial, fifty undergraduate students will be randomized to participate in a single session of music with ABS or pink noise. They will be asked to complete measures of self-reported anxiety. In addition, they will be asked to provide saliva samples (salivary cortisol), and wear electrocardiogram (ECG) electrodes on the wrist (heart rate variability) and an electroencephalogram (EEG) cap (frequency band power measures of anxiety). It is hypothesized that those assigned to the music with ABS condition will experience a reduction in subjective and physiological indices of anxiety. A secondary exploratory aim of this research will be to test potential neurophysiological mechanisms of actions, including neural entrainment and differences in HRV and frequency band power, that may clarify the effect of music with ABS on anxiety.
Ueberholz et al. (2024) studied this question.