The Effects of Music on ANS and Anxiety in Healthy Elderly and Persons With SCD

The Effects of Music on Autonomic Nervous System and Anxiety in Healthy Elderly and Persons With Subjective Cognitive Decline

Subjective cognition decline (SCD) is considered as a risk factor of dementia and associates not only with further cognition deterioration but with a higher anxiety level. Anxiety may lead to decreasing cognitive function and negative impacts on the well-being and quality of life. To avoid these consequences, reducing anxiety is an important step to treat SCD. To ease anxious emotions, music has been viewed as an effective, safe and easy alternative to medication. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of music on reducing the anxiety of the healthy elderly and SCD and further to compare the anxiety level between SCD and healthy controls.

Single subject pretest-posttest design was used. 12 SCD subjects was recruited from the memory clinic and 12 healthy controls from the community. The anxiety level was assessed both by self-reports (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and Visual Analogue Scale of Anxiety) and by objective measurements related to autonomic nervous system activities (heart rate variability and electrodermal activity). The participants underwent a memory task to induce anxiety. Next, preferred music and white noise were provided in random order. The anxiety level and the effects of music intervention between SCD and healthy controls will be further compared.

Inclusion Criteria:

• able to read and write Mandarin
• the scores of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) ≥ 24

Exclusion Criteria:

• cognitive status was affected by psychic problems, neurological disease or other conditions
• people with auditory and visual impairments
• people with obesity (BMI ≥ 27) or diabetes mellitus.