Effect of a Romantic Song on the Autonomic Nervous System and the Heart of Indian Male Volunteers

Abstract

In this chapter, the effect of an old generation romantic music (stimulus) on the autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity and the cardiac electrophysiology of Indian male volunteers was investigated. Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals were acquired and the corresponding RR intervals (RRIs) were extracted. The recurrence analysis of the RRI time series suggested a more stable heart rate in the post-stimulus condition. Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis detected a dominant parasympathetic activity in the post-stimulus condition. The time-domain and the wavelet transform analyses of the ECG signals predicted an alteration in the electrical activity of the heart because of the exposure to the music stimulus. The classification of the HRV and the ECG parameters was performed using artificial neural network (ANN), which resulted in an accuracy of ≥80%.