The Influence of Music Stimulation on Heart Rate Variability: Preliminary Results

Abstract

The purpose of this practical approach was to extract the relations between music stimulation and heart rate variability (HRV) in healthy volunteers. Different kinds of music were considered, including ambient, classic, and metal music genres. The study was carried out trying to understand how the integration of this stimulus can be a relevant feature of a smart environment and people wellbeing. The HRV evolution was based on time-domain and frequency-domain analysis. Preliminary results underline significant variations in HRV when the user is listening to ambient music versus classic and metal music. Moreover, a greater variance of the ratio between low frequencies (LF) and high frequencies (HF) values among all participants was more noticeable when listening to ambient music than all the other music genres, which may reflect lack of focus and a higher tendency to mind wander. The study was based on the usage of a developed wearable smart sensor that includes a photoplethysmography (PPG) measurement channel. The validation of this smart sensor for HRV monitoring was done using an additional ECG sensor node, as a reference cardiac activity measurement channel. HRV monitoring using the developed sensor node revealed a good correlation with the values obtained by the ECG node.