Dynamics of Autonomic Entrainment to Music: Effect of Loudness and Tempo Phrase Structures on RR Intervals and Respiration

TY - CHAP

T1 - Dynamics of Autonomic Entrainment to Music:

T2 - Effect of Loudness and Tempo Phrase Structures on RR Intervals and Respiration

AU - Cotic, Natalia

AU - Pope, Vanessa

AU - Solinski, Mateusz

AU - Lambiase, Pier

AU - Chew, Elaine

PY - 2025/7/14

Y1 - 2025/7/14

N2 - This study explores the mechanisms of music's influence on autonomic variables so that music interventions can be integrated into cardiovascular therapies. A Bayesian algorithm is used to generate credence profiles for boundaries of arc-like structures in music tempo and loudness that denote musical phrases. The Earth Mover's Distance (EMD) is used to quantify the distance between the credence profiles and listeners' RR intervals and respiration signals to quantify their synchronising effect. 89 people listened to 9 tracks each out of the 30 available in the dataset. For 24 out of the 30 tracks, loudness entrained more than tempo. Shorter phrase arcs (approx. 10 seconds) and smaller standard deviations in arc lengths (which suggests some degree of predictability) result in higher entrainment (smaller EMD). The correlation between the phrase arc statistics and the physiological measures has an average value of 0.55 (p-value=0.005). These results show that when a listener can anticipate musical phrase structures, their heart rates and breathing synchronise more with the music. The difference in entrainment between RR intervals and respiration to music are not statistically significant. The results show that expressive music structures may influence the body in systematic ways that can be harnessed for therapeutic purposes.

AB - This study explores the mechanisms of music's influence on autonomic variables so that music interventions can be integrated into cardiovascular therapies. A Bayesian algorithm is used to generate credence profiles for boundaries of arc-like structures in music tempo and loudness that denote musical phrases. The Earth Mover's Distance (EMD) is used to quantify the distance between the credence profiles and listeners' RR intervals and respiration signals to quantify their synchronising effect. 89 people listened to 9 tracks each out of the 30 available in the dataset. For 24 out of the 30 tracks, loudness entrained more than tempo. Shorter phrase arcs (approx. 10 seconds) and smaller standard deviations in arc lengths (which suggests some degree of predictability) result in higher entrainment (smaller EMD). The correlation between the phrase arc statistics and the physiological measures has an average value of 0.55 (p-value=0.005). These results show that when a listener can anticipate musical phrase structures, their heart rates and breathing synchronise more with the music. The difference in entrainment between RR intervals and respiration to music are not statistically significant. The results show that expressive music structures may influence the body in systematic ways that can be harnessed for therapeutic purposes.

KW - music expression

KW - musc expressivity

KW - musical prosody

KW - phrase arcs

KW - autonomic entrainment

KW - autonomic nervous system

KW - cardiovascular health

KW - cardiovascular science

KW - computational cardiology

KW - digital medicine

M3 - Conference paper

BT - IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC)

PB - IEEE Xplore

ER -