TMU study, 83 students: personalized music cut cortisol over twice as much as pink noise

Researchers at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) compared two kinds of listening sessions in 83 students who reported at least one recent symptom of generalized anxiety. According to Futura Sciences, personalized music with auditory beat stimulation lowered the stress hormone cortisol more than two times as much as pink noise futura-sciences.comFutura Sciencesfutura-sciences.comOpen source ↗. The team was led by psychology professor Frank A. Russo.

Design of the experiment

Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The first listened to music matched to their initial mood and gradually adjusted to promote a calmer, more positive emotional state, combined with rhythmic auditory stimulation. The second listened to pink noise, a continuous sound commonly used for relaxation, at the same volume as the music futura-sciences.comFutura Sciencesfutura-sciences.comOpen source ↗.

Before and after listening, the researchers measured cortisol levels, brain activity, heart rate variability, anxiety and mood. Anxiety and mood were assessed from the participants' own reports. The session with personalized music lasted 24 minutes futura-sciences.comFutura Sciencesfutura-sciences.comOpen source ↗.

Results: subjective and physiological measures differ

In both groups, participants reported lower anxiety and better mood after listening. Cortisol fell in both groups, but 15 minutes after listening the reduction was more than twice as large in the personalized music group futura-sciences.comFutura Sciencesfutura-sciences.comOpen source ↗. Brain activity linked to emotional regulation moved in opposite directions: it rose slightly after music and fell after pink noise futura-sciences.comFutura Sciencesfutura-sciences.comOpen source ↗.

Perceived anxiety, mood and heart rate variability improved to a similar degree in the two groups futura-sciences.comFutura Sciencesfutura-sciences.comOpen source ↗. The authors conclude that subjective and physiological measures can reveal different aspects of the response to an auditory intervention, so both should be evaluated. In their words, the study underlines the importance of measuring biological responses alongside perceived experience when assessing sound-based stress management approaches.

Limitations

The researchers caution that the biological results should be interpreted carefully. The differences in cortisol and brain activity were sensitive to how statistical outliers were handled, since some participants had cortisol levels far from the observed average futura-sciences.comFutura Sciencesfutura-sciences.comOpen source ↗. Further research is needed to determine the individual effects of personalized music and of pink noise. The work was published as "Differing subjective and psychophysiological response patterns to a music-based auditory intervention for anxiety".