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Effects of music on cardiovascular reactivity among surgeons
1Department of Psychology, State University of New York at Buffalo 14260.
Objective:
To determine the effects of surgeon-selected and experimenter-selected music on performance and autonomic responses of surgeons during a standard laboratory psychological stressor.
Design:
Within-subjects laboratory experiment.
Setting:
Hospital psychophysiology laboratory.
Participants:
A total of 50 male surgeons aged 31 to 61 years, who reported that they typically listen to music during surgery, volunteered for the study.
Main Outcome Measurements:
Cardiac responses, hemodynamic measures, electrodermal autonomic responses, task speed, and accuracy.
Results:
Autonomic reactivity for all physiological measures was significantly less in the surgeon-selected music condition than in the experimenter-selected music condition, which in turn was significantly less than in the no-music control condition. Likewise, speed and accuracy of task performance were significantly better in the surgeon-selected music condition than in the experimenter-selected music condition, which was also significantly better than the no-music control condition.
Conclusion:
Surgeon-selected music was associated with reduced autonomic reactivity and improved performance of a stressful nonsurgical laboratory task in study participants.