Psychophysiological Effects of Birdsongs VS Music

Zhejiang University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Sadness

Treatments: Behavioral: Music; Behavioral: Birdsongs

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06581445

Effects of Birdsongs

Details and patient eligibility

About

The main goal of this study is to learn the psychophysiological effects of birdsongs on sadness. The main questions it aims to answer are:

1. Can birdsongs alleviate sadness in a short term?
2. Can birdsongs have greater impact on sadness than music?
3. Can birdsongs alleviate sadness for both non-depressed and depressed participants?

Researchers will compare birdsongs to music (a active control) to see if birdsongs works to reduce sadness and also examined the psychophysiological effects of birdsongs in depressed and non-depressed participants.

Participants will:

go through the following stages: baseline, neutral control, 1st sadness induction, 1st intervention, calculation task, 2nd sadness induction, and 2nd intervention.

Full description

During the baseline phase, participants were instructed to sit quietly and relax. For the neutral control, they viewed an informative video demonstrating the process of plastic injection molding. As for the sadness induction, they were presented with sad film clips from either Hachi: A Dog's Tale or My Brother and Sister. The order of the sad videos was randomized across participants. The intervention stages involved listening to either the cheerful Cuckoo Waltz music or a clip of birdsongs from laughing thrushes. The order of the interventions was randomized as well. The calculation task was employed as a distracter, enabling participants to return to a neutral state. Except for the computational task, the remaining six phases each had a duration of 6 minutes.

Enrollment: 89 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 30 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Aged 18-30 years
• Right-handed
• No recent illness or medication use
• No history of neurological or psychiatric disorders
• Normal or corrected-to-normal visual acuity (myopic participants wore glasses)
• Normal hearing

Exclusion criteria

• Incapable of giving written informed consent to this study
• Acute high suicide risk at baseline assessment
• Psychosis

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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89 participants in 2 patient groups

Depressed group

Experimental group

Description:

The participants were categorized into two groups using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D). PHQ-9 is a self-report scale. PHQ-9 scores of 5 or higher represent mild and severe depression, while PHQ-9 scores of lower than 5 mean normal condition. HAM-D is a scale administered by a healthcare professional. The cut-off point of the HAM-D scale is 8, which divides normal conditions from depressive conditions. The participants first completed PHQ-9. For those with PHQ-9 scores of 5 or higher, the trained researchers interviewed them and rated their severity of depression on the HAM-D. The participants first completed PHQ-9. For those with PHQ-9 scores ≥ 5, the trained researchers interviewed them and rated their severity of depression on the HAM-D. Those with HAM-D scores \> 8 were classified into the depressed group.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Birdsongs

Behavioral: Music

Non-depressed group

Experimental group

Description:

Those with PHQ-9 scores \< 5 or HAM-D scores ≤ 8 were classified into the non-depressed group.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Birdsongs

Behavioral: Music