Reply to Padulo et al.: Jymmin, an easy-to-implement musical workout approach.

Padulo et al. (1) comment on our recent PNAS article (2). Here, we give a response to each of their points and rebut each point. Their major concern seems to be that the musical feedback technology we used is too complex to allow for replication by other laboratories. We do not agree with Padulo et al.; rather, we are convinced that this paradigm, which has since also been used to examine other psychological effects (3), can be replicated quite rapidly with some experience in electroacoustic music and some knowledge about sensors and widely used music composition programs (such as Ableton, MaxMSP, Puredata, Cubase, etc.). Furthermore, extensive piloting of the Jymmin method with participants of all age groups indicates that effects of Jymmin are largely independent of individual musical taste so that, for example, elderly participants who usually didn’t appreciate modern electronic music enjoyed creating the same type of music themselves during Jymmin. This suggests that the effects of Jymmin are probably not exclusive to certain compositions but can be evoked with a great variety of musical sounds and styles. Subsequently, we address the other points of Padulo et al. as follows: