Assessing the Effects of Music Listening on Psychobiological Stress in Daily Life

Summary

A study protocol is presented on how to assess associations between music listening and psychobiological stress (as measured by subjective stress levels, salivary cortisol, and salivary alpha-amylase) in daily life. Advice on study design, materials, methods, selection of participants, and statistical handling is provided. Representative results are presented and discussed.

Abstract

Music listening is associated with stress-reducing effects. However, most of the results on music listening and stress were gathered in experimental settings. As music listening is a popular activity of daily life, it is of utmost importance to study the effects of music listening on psychobiological stress in an everyday, daily-life setting. Here, a study protocol is presented that allows the assessment of associations between music listening and psychobiological stress in daily life by noninvasively measuring salivary cortisol (as a marker of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis) and salivary alpha-amylase (as a marker of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)). The protocol includes advice on the study design (e.g., sampling protocol), the materials and methods (e.g., the assessment of psychobiological stress in daily life, the assessment of music listening, and the manual), the selection of participants (e.g., the approval of the institutional review board and inclusion criteria), and the statistical analyses (e.g., the multilevel approach). The representative results provide evidence for a stress-reducing effect of music listening in daily life. Particularly, specific reasons for listening to music (especially relaxation), as well as the presence of others while doing so, increase this stress-reducing effect. At the same time, music listening in daily life differentially affects the HPA axis and ANS functioning, thus emphasizing the need for a multi-dimensional assessment of stress in daily life.

Introduction

Music listening is associated with stress-reducing effects^1,2. However, most previous studies were conducted in experimental settings, investigating highly selective patient populations. In particular, many studies were set in surgical settings, in which music listening occurs either before, during, or after a stressful procedure³. Although some of these studies show beneficial effects of listening to music, the findings remain equivocal. This might be due to a number of methodological reasons (i.e. different study methodologies and different study designs may lead to diff....

Protocol

This protocol follows the guidelines of the local ethics committee of the University of Marburg; for all reported studies^19,20,21, approval was obtained. Obtain approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB), with special attention to potential intrusiveness of study participation on daily-life routines and with special attention to the collection of salivary biomarkers for stress.

1. Study Design: Sampling Protocol

1. Decide on the number of days, as most studies involving multiple assessments typically run from 3 d to 3 weeks

Results

This protocol is meant to provide one example of how the effects of music listening on psychobiological stress in daily life can be examined. The procedures are designed to investigate the associations between music listening, subjective stress reports, secretion of salivary cortisol, and activity of salivary alpha-amylase.

The representative results presented are examples from three publications of our work group, published in .......

Discussion

Here, a study protocol is presented on how to investigate the effects of music listening on psychobiological stress in daily life. The advantage of the ambulatory assessment design is that the effects of music listening on stress can be investigated in the natural habitat of the participants while they are going about their daily routine.

As this study protocol assesses past music listening and momentary stress, short-term effects of music listening on stress can be examined. In line with expe.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
SaliCap Set	IBL International GmbH, a Tecan Group company	RE69985	Sampling tubes for collection of saliva samples to be used in the IBL Saliva Immunoassays
Cortisol Saliva ELISA	IBL International GmbH, a Tecan Group company	RE52611	Enzyme Immunoassay for the quantitative determination of free cortisol in human saliva
Calibrator f.a.s. w/o diluent	Roche Diagnostics	10759350190	Ready-for-use calibrator consisting of a buffered description aqueous solution with biological materials added as required to obtain desired component levels.
Precinorm U	Roche Diagnostics	10171743122	Ready-for-use control
Precipath U	Roche Diagnostics	10171760122	Ready-for-use control
AMY EPS HIT 917 liquid	Roche Diagnostics	11876473 316	R1: α-glucosidase; R2: 4,6-ethylidene-(G7) p-nitrophenyl-(G1)-α,D-maltoheptaoside
Further materials include typical laboratory utensils, e.g., micropipettes, oribtal shaker, vortex mixer, 8-channel micropipettor, wash bottle, automated or semi-automated microtiter plate washing system, precision scale, microtiter plate reader capable of reading absorbance.
Apple iPod touch, 8 GB, 5th Generation	Apple Inc.	n/a	mobile diary device
iDialogPad	Mutz Elektronik Entwicklung	n/a	software for programming items occuring in the ambulatory assessment