The effects of listening to different types of music on perceived and physiological indicators of relaxation were evaluated. Fifty-six undergraduate students, 24 males and 32 females, mean age of 21, were randomly assigned to listen to classical, hard rock, self-selected relaxing music, or no music. Participants' relaxation level, skin temperature, muscle tension and heart rate were evaluated b...

Polyphonic music combines multiple auditory streams to create complex auditory scenes, thus providing a tool for investigating the neural mechanisms that orient attention in natural auditory contexts. Across two fMRI experiments, we varied stimuli and task demands in order to identify the cortical areas that are activated during attentive listening to real music. In individual experiments and i...

Music has been shown to have a profound effect on listeners’ internal states as evidenced by neuroscience research. Listeners report selecting and listening to music with specific intent, thereby using music as a tool to achieve desired psychological effects within a given context. In light of these observations, we argue that music information retrieval research must revisit the dominant assum...

The current research examined the influence of loud music on driving performance, and whether mental effort mediated this effect. Participants (N=69) drove in a driving simulator either with or without listening to music. In order to test whether music would have similar effects on driving performance in different situations, we manipulated the simulated traffic environment such that the drivin...

OBJECTIVE The goal was to assess risky and protective listening behaviors of adolescent users of MP3 players and the association of these behaviors with demographic characteristics and frequency of use. METHODS In 2007, 1687 adolescents (12-19 years of age) in 68 classes in 15 Dutch secondary schools were invited to complete questionnaires about their music-listening behaviors. RESULTS . Ni...

OBJECTIVE To examine, among adolescents and emerging adults attending inner-city lower education, associations between risky music-listening behaviors (from MP3 players and in discotheques and at pop concerts) and more traditional health-risk behaviors: substance use (cigarettes, alcohol, cannabis, and hard drugs) and unsafe sexual intercourse. METHODS A total of 944 students in Dutch inner-c...

Our surrounding auditory environment has a dramatic influence on the development of basic auditory and cognitive skills, but little is known about how it influences the recovery of these skills after neural damage. Here, we studied the long-term effects of daily music and speech listening on auditory sensory memory after middle cerebral artery (MCA) stroke. In the acute recovery phase, 60 patie...

This pilot study compared the differences in the quantified electroencephalogram (qEEG) between two conditions; eyes closed resting and eyes closed listening to music of 15 subjects currently experiencing an acute psychotic episode. The results showed a significant decrease in delta, alpha and beta waves when listening to music compared to resting condition.