The effects of a music intervention on the autonomic nervous system during recovery from strenuous exercise

Objective:
To investigate the effect of music on heart rate recovery (HRR) and heart rate variability (HRV) after intense exertion.

Methods:
Five hundred male students enrolled at Yongin University, Korea, underwent a cycling test to assess aerobic capacity; 180 students with equal scores were selected for a music intervention, which was conducted after vigorous exercise. The 180 participants were randomized into three music groups and a control group; the participants in each music group listened to music at three different tempos: slow (lento) (n = 45), moderate (moderato) (n = 45), and fast (allegretto) (n = 45). The control group did not listen to music (n = 45). After the test, data on cardiac recovery and HRV were gathered and modeled.

Results:
The results revealed no significant variation in HRR and HRV indexes between the four cohorts (p > .05), and no significant differences were observed in the anaerobic power cycling indexes during strenuous exercise (p > .05). The music intervention had a significant impact on HR, low-frequency power (LF), high-frequency power (HF), normalized LF (LFnorm ), normalized HF (HFnorm ), and the LF/HF ratio during recovery (p < .05).

Conclusion:
After rigorous activity, listening to allegretto music improved HRR and restored HRV equilibrium, which is critical to preventing and minimizing arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death.

Keywords: heart rate recovery; heart rate variability; music intervention; myocardial infarction; sudden cardiac death.

PMID: 37985396 DOI: 10.1111/anec.13096