Bodily Movements Influence Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Responses to Isolated Melodic Intervals

چکیده

The present study examines psychophysiological responses to ascending melodic intervals and the specific influences of bodily movement. A total of 15 adult listeners were assessed in 2 conditions with and without voluntary bodily movements during listening to major third and major seventh intervals, while their heart rate was continuously recorded. Heart rate as well as the standard deviation of normal-to normal RR-intervals in the electrocardiogram within a given time interval (SD-NN-RR) served as dependent measures, the latter indicating parasympathetic activation. A repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed a significant interaction between interval and condition. Listening to the major seventh interval led to significantly higher SD-NN-RR values than listening to the major third in the condition without voluntary movement. With movement, these differences were not observed. The study extends previous findings by showing that task demands strongly influence physiological responses to isolated musical materials.