Name: assessing the effects of music listening on psychobiological stress in daily life
Uploaded: 2017-02-02T14:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Assessing the Effects of Music Listening on Psychobiological Stress in Daily Life at JoVE.com

JS and UMN acknowledge funding by the Volkswagen Foundation (Az. 84905). We thank the University of Marburg for funding participant reimbursements and the Universitaetsstiftung of the University of Marburg for funding the biochemical analyses. Furthermore, we thank Johanna M. Doerr for her contribution to the study design and Nadine Skoluda for her involvement in the analysis of the saliva samples.

This protocol follows the guidelines of the local ethics committee of the University of Marburg; for all reported studies19,20,21, 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: ...

<ol>
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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...

Music listening is associated with stress-reducing effects1,2. 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.&#160;different study methodologies and different study designs may lead to different results). For example, the artificial setting of a laboratory-based study makes it unclear whether findings from these experimental studies can be transferred to real-life environments. As music listening is a popular activity of daily life4 that is often used for relaxation purposes5,6,7, it is of the utmost importance to study the effects of music listening on psychobiological stress (and its potential underlying mechanisms) in everyday life settings that are characterized by high ecological validity.
Studies set in daily life are often referred to as Ecological Momentary Assessments (EMA), Experience Sampling Methods (ESM), or Ambulatory Assessments (AA)8. Common to all of these approaches is the fact that data is captured repeatedly over time in the real-world environment of the participants. According to Shiffman, Stone, and Hufford9, studies set in daily life thus allow for (a) characterizing individual differences, (b) describing natural history, (c) assessing contextual associations, and (d) documenting temporal sequences. Therefore, it is possible to study dynamic relations among variables of interest with a minimum of recall bias and a maximum of ecological validity9. Although the terms EMA, ESM, and AA are often used interchangeably, certain distinctions must be made8.
Whereas EMA and ESM refer to the assessment of subjective self-reports, AA is defined as the simultaneous assessment of self-reports, behavior records, and/or physiological measurements in daily life while participants are going about their daily routine10. AA studies are characterized by repeated measures of current experiences and behaviors in conjunction with physiological data11. Furthermore, AA allows the measurement of stress in daily life from a psychobiological perspective, as self-reports and physiological markers can be assessed in the natural habitat of the participants. The Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis and the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) are two prominent stress-sensitive systems in the body. The HPA axis is responsible for the endocrine stress response. When experiencing stress, this axis is activated. This activation can be measured by the secretion of the hormone cortisol. The autonomic stress response can be measured via a range of autonomic markers, such as heart rate and skin conductance. A relatively new biomarker reflecting the activity of the ANS is the salivary enzyme alpha-amylase12. Both HPA axis and ANS activity can be noninvasively and concomitantly measured in saliva by means of salivary cortisol and salivary alpha-amylase, respectively13.
Studies set in daily life encompassing both subjective as well as physiological markers of stress are still rare, as most of the studies on music listening in daily life rely on subjective self-reports6,7,14,15,16,17. From these studies, it can be concluded that music listening is a popular activity of daily life15,17 that is associated with beneficial effects for subjective well-being6,7,18. Most interestingly, many studies find that music listening in daily life is associated with subjective feelings of relaxation6,7. Furthermore, relaxation is a common reason for music listening in daily life6. On the other hand, ambulatory assessment studies on the stress-reducing effect of music listening &#8212; particularly those encompassing both psychological as well as physiological indicators for stress &#8212; are very rare. We have previously shown in two ambulatory assessment studies that music listening is associated with a stress-reducing effect in healthy participants19,20. In contrast to these findings in healthy young adults, we were not able to find a stress-reducing effect of music listening in a patient sample21.
Thus, it is of particular importance to study the effects of music listening in daily life using ambulatory assessment, as this approach allows the examination of a broad variety of situations in which music listening occurs with high temporal resolution (in comparison to an artificial situation in an experiment) and high external validity. By means of ambulatory assessment studies, it is possible to investigate context factors influencing the effects of music listening in daily life. At the same time, the underlying mechanisms can be investigated by means of concomitantly assessing physiological parameters. This approach renders it possible to unravel the complex mechanisms underlying the stress-reducing effect of music listening in daily life.
This protocol demonstrates how to assess the effects of music listening on psychobiological stress in daily life by elaborating on (1) study design, (2) materials and methods, (3) selection of participants, and (4) statistical considerations, based upon the aforementioned studies19,20,21.

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="1704">
	<tbody>
		<tr height="24">
			<td height="24" style="height:24px;width:216px;">SaliCap Set</td>
			<td style="width:143px;">Tecan (IBL)</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">RE69985</td>
			<td style="width:1227px;">Sampling tubes for collection of saliva samples to be used in the IBL Saliva Immunoassays</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Cortisol Saliva ELISA</td>
			<td style="width:143px;">Tecan (IBL)</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">RE52611</td>
			<td>Enzyme Immunoassay for the quantitative determination of free cortisol in human saliva</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="24">
			<td height="24" style="height:24px;width:216px;">Calibrator f.a.s. w/o diluent</td>
			<td style="width:143px;">Roche Diagnostics</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">10759350190</td>
			<td>Ready-for-use calibrator consisting of a buffered description aqueous solution with biological materials added as required to obtain desired component levels.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Precinorm U</td>
			<td style="width:143px;">Roche Diagnostics</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">10171743122</td>
			<td>Ready-for-use control</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">Precipath U</td>
			<td style="width:143px;">Roche Diagnostics</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">10171760122</td>
			<td>Ready-for-use control</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="21">
			<td height="21" style="height:21px;width:216px;">AMY EPS HIT 917 liquid</td>
			<td style="width:143px;">Roche Diagnostics</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">11876473 316</td>
			<td>R1: &#945;-glucosidase; R2: 4,6-ethylidene-(G7) p-nitrophenyl-(G1)-&#945;,D-maltoheptaoside</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="78">
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td colspan="4" height="78" style="height:78px;width:1704px;">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&#160;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:216px;">Apple iPod touch, 8GB, 5th Generation&#160;</td>
			<td style="width:143px;">Apple Inc.&#160;</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">n/a</td>
			<td>mobile diary device</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="42">
			<td height="42" style="height:42px;width:216px;">iDialogPad&#160;</td>
			<td style="width:143px;">Mutz Elektronik Entwicklung</td>
			<td style="width:119px;">n/a</td>
			<td>software for programming items occuring in the ambulatory assessment</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

assessing the effects of music listening on psychobiological stress in daily life

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.

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 ...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Assessing the Effects of Music Listening on Psychobiological Stress in Daily Life at JoVE.com

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

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.

Music listening is associated with stress-reducing effects. However, most of the results on music listening and stress were gathered in experimental ...

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