Dale Bartett, in his chapter ‘Physiological responses to music and sound stimulus’, in Hodges’ Handbook of Music Psychology, provides a historical and theoretical account of the role of experimental research on the physiological responses to music and sound stimulus, over the past 120 years. This research has been able to provide quantifiable results confirming the affect of music on various physiological functions.
The earliest well controlled studies and experiments in the field dated to the late 1800’s and heavily influenced the standard measurement techniques used today. These include heart and pulse rate (measured by units per minute) respiration rate (measured in the # of breaths per minute), Blood pressure (measured by systolic, diastolic, and pulse pressure), muscular tension, blood volume, skin temperature. Each of these techniques requires specific measuring apparatus. A thorough and varied listing of experiments/studies using the above standard measurements is available to support physiological responses to music.
By the 1900’s, improved instrumentation, methodologies, and statistics were being applied and by 1985, the influence of music on biochemical responses was being researched.
Both physiological and affective responses to music and sound stimulus have been experimented. Historically,
1) Aristotle used the word ‘passion’ to denote affective states relating to bodily experiences
2) Descartes distinguished between passion of the soul and bodily reactions
3) Darwin linked emotion and the stimulus of events
4) And in 1875, Williams James established his ‘Theory of Emotion’ wherein innate reflexes to emotional stimulus causing bodily changes were perceived as emotion.
The focus in the field of study has not changed considerably in the past 120 years with the exception of an increased focus on psychoneuroimmunology (link between psychological processes and the immune system) and research in early infants.
Broad outcomes from the past 120 years of research include,
1) Music and sound stimulus have been found to influence bodily systems (374)
2) Music has the capability of altering our psychological and affective state however, experimental research has yet to concretely prove why.
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I think your summary here is good, Nicola. The chapter was interesting, but pretty self-explanatory. One variable that I don't remember being discussed (though perhaps I've just forgotten it) is heart-rate variability. This variable has been shown to be very important to psychological well-being and can lower blood pressure though such things as breathing to control heart-rate variability (there is even an FDA approved device for that purpose).
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