Mozart's Music Reduces Fixation Loss in Visual Field Testing

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Neuroscience
• Music Psychology

Background:

• Visual field testing is crucial for diagnosing and monitoring optic nerve disorders.
• Test reliability, particularly fixation loss (FL), can be affected by patient concentration.
• Exploring non-pharmacological interventions to improve test accuracy is of clinical interest.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effect of Mozart's music on the reliability of visual field testing in healthy Thai adults.
• To determine if listening to Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos (K. 448) can reduce fixation loss during automated perimetry.

Main Methods:

• 163 perimetry-naive participants underwent automated perimetry (Humphrey Field Analyzer III, SITA standard 24-2).
• Participants were randomized into three groups: control, headphones (noise-canceling), and Mozart music.
• Fixation loss (FL), false positives (FP), false negatives (FN), and other perimetric indices were analyzed.

Main Results:

• The Mozart group showed a significantly lower mean percentage of fixation loss (6.4%) compared to the control group (14.3%) (p=0.03).
• No significant differences were found in false positives, false negatives, or test duration among the groups.
• Key perimetric indices like mean deviation and pattern standard deviation remained within normal ranges across all groups.

Conclusions:

• Mozart's music may enhance concentration and spatial reasoning during visual field testing.
• Incorporating Mozart's music into clinical settings could potentially improve fixation loss, a key indicator of visual field test reliability.