Optimizing Music Learning: Exploring How Blocked and Interleaved Practice Schedules Affect Advanced Performance.

In music learning, an interleaved schedule that continuously alternates tasks, was found to be more effective than simple repetition, during which repetition was used on a single task until mastered. Front Psychol. 2016 Aug 18;7:1251.

Comment: Variety is the spice of life, and the key to learning according to this study. Repeating a task over and over requires less cognitive processing, may reduce long-term learning as a result.

What carers and family said about music therapy on behaviours of older people with dementia in residential aged care.

This study of families and care givers taking care of elderly people with dementia found that the study participants all wanted policymakers to ensure more, not less, music therapy. More funding for music therapy was determined to be important as part of ongoing care in the residential aged care context.  (Int J Older People Nurs. 2015 Jun;10(2):146-57)

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Music and emotions: from enchantment to entrainment.

Music activates a combination of emotional and motivational, motor, attention, and memory-related brain regions.  (Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2015 Mar;1337(1):212-22.)

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Familiarity with music increases walking speed in rhythmic auditory cuing.

In gait rehabilitation (e.g. after a stroke), when patients listened to familiar music during rehab, the result was a elicited faster stride velocity and less variable strides.  (Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2015 Mar;1337(1):53-61)

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Music performance anxiety in young musicians: comparison of playing classical or popular music.

Performance anxiety was high for classical musicians between 7 and 16 yrs, which decreased with experience. Performance anxiety increased with age in popular music musicians, regardless of number of performances.  (Med Probl Perform Art. 2015 Mar;30(1):30-7.)

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Conclusions: These findings suggest that MBSR, a secular meditation training program, is associated with improved depressive symptoms regardless of affiliation with a religion, sense of spirituality, trait level of mindfulness before MBSR training, sex, o

Mindfulness based stress reduction was found to decrease depression, regardless of affiliation with religion or a sense of spirituality.  (J Altern Complement Med. 2015 Feb 19.x)

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The acute effects of yoga on executive function.

This study found that the practice of yoga improved thinking ability.  (J Phys Act Health. 2013 May;10(4):488-95)

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Music therapy to reduce agitation in dementia.

Music therapy to reduce agitation in dementia.

BACKGROUND: Music therapy is a non-pharmacological intervention that aims to increase emotional wellbeing through cognitive stimulation and social interaction.
AIM AND METHOD: I aimed to investigate the efficacy of group music therapy to reduce agitation in people with dementia. To this end, I carried out a systematic review of the literature.
RESULTS: Eight articles show that music therapy is feasible for use with people with all stages of dementia. The best results involved using familiar music and a qualified group music therapist, with the optimum frequency of intervention being two to three times a week for 30-50 minutes. Control interventions such as reading and recreational activities also reduced agitation.
CONCLUSION: Music therapy should be implemented by qualified music therapists in care homes and day care units. Further research should be conducted to ascertain the most suitable music types to be used in therapy sessions. 25188964

Nurs Times. 2014 Aug 6-19;110(32-33):12-5

Music therapy in breast cancer

QUESTION: does music therapy with progressive muscle relaxation affect the levels of depression, anxiety and length of hospital stay in women with breast cancer patients undergoing radical mastectomy?

METHODS: 170 patients were evaluated. Half received the intervention and half received routine care. Music therapy with progressive muscle relaxation were performed twice a day.

RESULTS: the music therapy and muscle relaxation patients had significant improvement in depression, anxiety, and length of hospital stay.

COMMENT: this is a classic case of the Hawthorne bias. Interpret results with extreme skepticism.


Eur J Oncol Nurs. 2014 Aug 30;

Should you listen to music while you work?

BACKGROUND: the playing of music is common in the operating room. Does the staff believe this is beneficial?

METHODS: a survey was done of a random selection of operating theater staff members.

RESULTS: 52 health professionals responded. Of these, 36 stated that music is played in their operating room either every day, or two to three times a week. The majority felt that music helped them enjoy their work more and performed better.

CONCLUSION: most health care professionals in the operating theatre find that listening to music at work is a positive experience.

COMMENT:  The famous neurosurgeon Ben Carson listened to classical music when operating, as detailed in his book Gifted Hands.

J Perioper Pract. 2014 Sep;24(9):199-204

Spectators who score high on openness personality trait enjoy the excitement of hearing dancers breathing without music.

BACKGROUND: Strong correlations have been shown between music and personality traits, here we aim to investigate how personality traits shape the appreciation of dance when this is presented with three different music/sounds.

METHODS: Therefore, we investigated the relationship between personality traits and the subjective esthetic experience of 52 spectators watching a contemporary dance performance.

RESULTS: Spectators rated the experience of watching dance without music significantly different from with music. The higher spectators scored on the Big Five personality factor openness, the more they liked the no-music section. Spectators' physical experience with dance was not linked to their appreciation but was significantly related to high average extravert scores. Spectators who scored high on the openness personality trait enjoy the excitement of hearing dancers breathing without music.

CONCLUSION: For the first time, we showed that spectators' reported entrainment to watching dance movements without music is strongly related to their personality and thus may need to be considered when using dance as a means to investigate action observation processes and esthetic preferences.


Front Hum Neurosci. 2014;8:718

Specific music therapy techniques in the treatment of primary headache disorders in adolescents: a randomized attention-placebo-controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Migraine and tension-type headache have a high prevalence in children and adolescents. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the efficacy of specific music therapy techniques in the treatment of adolescents with primary headache (tension-type headache and migraine). METHODS: A prospective, randomized, attention-placebo-controlled parallel group trial was conducted. Patients were randomized to either music therapy (n = 40) or a rhythm pedagogic program (n = 38) designed as an "attention placebo" over 6 sessions within 8 weeks. RESULTS: Neither treatment was superior to the other at any point of measurement CONCLUSION: Music therapy was not found to be superior to an attention placebo for migraine and tension-type headaches in children and adolescents.

J Pain. 2013 Oct;14(10):1196-207

Verbal learning in the context of background music: no influence of vocals and instrumentals on verbal learning.

BACKGROUND: Whether listening to background music enhances verbal learning performance is still a matter of dispute. In this study we investigated the influence of vocal and instrumental background music on verbal learning.
METHODS: 226 subjects were randomly assigned to one of five groups (one control group and 4 experimental groups). All participants were exposed to a verbal learning task. One group served as control group while the 4 further groups served as experimental groups. The control group learned without background music while the 4 experimental groups were exposed to vocal or instrumental musical pieces during learning with different subjective intensity and valence. Thus, we employed 4 music listening conditions (vocal music with high intensity: VOC_HIGH, vocal music with low intensity: VOC_LOW, instrumental music with high intensity: INST_HIGH, instrumental music with low intensity: INST_LOW) and one control condition (CONT) during which the subjects learned the word lists. Since it turned out that the high and low intensity groups did not differ in terms of the rated intensity during the main experiment these groups were lumped together. Thus, we worked with 3 groups: one control group and two groups, which were exposed to background music (vocal and instrumental) during verbal learning. As dependent variable, the number of learned words was used. Here we measured immediate recall during five learning sessions (recall 1 - recall 5) and delayed recall for 15 minutes (recall 6) and 14 days (recall 7) after the last learning session.
RESULTS: Verbal learning improved during the first 5 recall sessions without any strong difference between the control and experimental groups. Also the delayed recalls were similar for the three groups. There was only a trend for attenuated verbal learning for the group passively listened to vocal. This learning attenuation diminished during ghe following learning sessions.
CONCLUSIONS: The exposure to vocal or instrumental background music during encoding did not influence verbal learning. We suggest that the participants are easily able to cope with this background stimulation by ignoring this information channel in order to focus on the verbal learning task.


Behav Brain Funct. 2014 Mar 26;10(1):10

Cardiac autonomic regulation during exposure to auditory stimulation

Objectives: The effects of chronic music auditory stimulation on the cardiovascular system have been investigated in the literature. However, data regarding the acute effects of different styles of music on cardiac autonomic regulation are lacking. The literature has indicated that auditory stimulation with white noise above 50 dB induces cardiac responses. We aimed to evaluate the acute effects of classical baroque and heavy metal music of different intensities on cardiac autonomic regulation.

Study design: The study was performed in 16 healthy men aged 18-25 years. All procedures were performed in the same soundproof room. We analyzed heart rate variability (HRV) in time (standard deviation of normal-to-normal R-R intervals [SDNN], root-mean square of differences [RMSSD] and percentage of adjacent NN intervals with a difference of duration greater than 50 ms [pNN50]) and frequency (low frequency [LF], high frequency [HF] and LF/HF ratio) domains. HRV was recorded at rest for 10 minutes. Subsequently, the volunteers were exposed to one of the two musical styles (classical baroque or heavy metal music) for five minutes through an earphone, followed by a five-minute period of rest, and then they were exposed to the other style for another five minutes. The subjects were exposed to three equivalent sound levels (60-70dB, 70-80dB and 80-90dB). The sequence of songs was randomized for each individual.

Results: Auditory stimulation with heavy metal music did not influence HRV indices in the time and frequency domains in the three equivalent sound level ranges. The same was observed with classical baroque musical auditory stimulation with the three equivalent sound level ranges.

Conclusion: Musical auditory stimulation of different intensities did not influence cardiac autonomic regulation in men.


Turk Kardiyol Dern Ars. 2014 Mar;42(2):139-146

Mitochondrial DNA, restoring Beethovens music.

Great ancient composers have endured many obstacles and constraints which are very difficult to understand unless we perform the restoration process of ancient music. Species identification in leather used during manufacturing is the key step to start such a restoration process in order to produce a facsimile of a museum piano. Our study reveals the species identification in the leather covering the hammer head in a piano created by Erard in 1802. This is the last existing piano similar to the piano that Beethoven used with its leather preserved in its original state. The leather sample was not present in a homogeneous piece, yet combined with glue. Using a DNA extraction method that avoids PCR inhibitors; we discovered that sheep and cattle are the origin of the combination. To identify the species in the leather, we focused on the amounts of mitochondrial DNA in both leather and glue and results have led us to the conclusion that the leather used to cover the hammer head in this piano was made of cattle hide.


Mitochondrial DNA. 2014 Mar 11

Effects of music tempo on performance, psychological, and physiological variables during 20 km cycling in well-trained cyclists.

HYPOTHESIS: music tempo affects the performance, psychological response, and physiological response of well-trained athletes.

METHODS: 10 highly trained road cyclists performed four 20-km time trials. The time-trials were spaced one week apart. The music for each trial was randomized between fast-tempo (140 bpm), medium-tempo (120 bpm), slow-tempo (100 bpm), and no music.

RESULTS: There was no significant change in performance, physiological, or psychophysical variables. However, mood disturbance and tension increased significantly in the fast-tempo trial when compared with medium and no-music conditions.

CONCLUSION:  music tempo did not affect the performance of highly trained athletes although fast music compared with no music increased both mood disturbance and tension.

Percept Mot Skills. 2013 Oct;117(2):484-97

Music and the elderly

Music is an effective therapy for multiple chronic diseases in the elderly. Bull Soc Sci Med Grand Duche Luxemb. 2013;(2):33-50

A nationwide survey of nurses' attitudes toward music therapy and their need for education in its application.

BACKGROUND: Music therapy is increasingly used to help heal patients. However, there is a significant gap in the literature about nurses' attitudes toward and need for education in music therapy for nursing practice. This cross-sectional study was conducted to describe nurses' attitudes toward music therapy and determine their need for education in music therapy.

METHODS: Participants included 1,197 nurses who were recruited from hospitals in different regions of Taiwan.

RESULTS: Participants expressed positive attitudes toward music therapy. Most participants were willing to learn about music therapy. "Skill in using musical instruments" was the most frequently identified educational need. Further study of the discrepancy between the attitudes toward "performing music therapy" and "learning music therapy" is needed to clarify why nurses expected that they would receive no support for attending music therapy education.

CONCLUSION: Given participants' attitudes toward music therapy and their motivation for learning, nursing administrators and educators may consider developing policies to further the advancement of music therapy in educational programs and practice.

J Contin Educ Nurs. 2013 Dec;44(12):544-52

The effects of Chinese five-element music therapy on nursing students with depressed mood.

The effects of Chinese five-element music therapy on nursing students with depressed mood.

Int J Nurs Pract. 2014 Mar 4;

Authors: Chen CJ, Sung HC, Lee MS, Chang CY

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of Chinese five-element music therapy on nursing students with depressed mood. We randomly assigned 71 nursing students from Taiwan with depressed mood to the music and control groups. The music group (n = 31) received Chinese five-element music therapy, whereas the participants in the control group (n = 40) maintained their routine lifestyles with no music therapy. All of the participants were assessed using the Depression Mood Self-Report Inventory for Adolescence, and their salivary cortisol levels were measured. The study found that there was a significant reduction in depression between the pre- and posttherapy test scores and in salivary cortisol levels over time in the music group. After receiving the music therapy, the nursing students' depression levels were significantly reduced (P = 0.038) compared with the control group (P < 0.001). These results indicate that the Chinese five-element music therapy has the potential to reduce the level of depression in nursing students with depressed mood.

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Employing music exposure to reduce prejudice and discrimination.

Employing music exposure to reduce prejudice and discrimination.

Aggress Behav. 2014 Feb 25;

Authors: Greitemeyer T, Schwab A

Whereas previous research has mainly focused on negative effects of listening to music on intergroup attitudes and behavior, the present three experiments examined whether music exposure could reduce prejudice and discrimination. In fact, those participants who had listened to songs with pro-integration (relative to neutral) lyrics expressed less prejudice (Studies 1 and 3) and were less aggressive against (Study 2) and more helpful toward an outgroup member (Study 3). These effects were unaffected by song liking as well as mood and arousal properties of the songs employed, suggesting that it is indeed the pro-integration content of the lyrics that drives the effects. It is discussed to what extent music exposure could be employed to effectively reduce prejudice and discrimination in the real world. Aggr. Behav. 9999:XX-XX, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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