Post-Exposure Effects of Music-Generated Vibration and Whole-Body Acoustic Stimulation among Symphony Orchestra Musicians

Abstract

Fifty-four professional symphony orchestra musicians randomly assigned to one of three conditions (No-Music, Music-Alone, or Music + Vibration) received eight individual 50-minute sessions over a period of eight weeks. Sessions consisted of a regimen involving relaxation exercises, verbal conversations, and semi-structured visual imagery tasks, while seated in the Somatron Acoustic Massage?TM Power Recliner. Non-significant between-group differences were found in regard to subjects' Profile of Mood States scores during individual sessions and between the sessions across time. Nevertheless, significant group differences were found for both Music-Alone and Music + Vibration conditions when compared to the No-Music condition, as well as between the two music conditions themselves. These differences surfaced from a content analysis of session transcript data. Most specifically, the musicians exposed to Music + Vibration stimulation demonstrated increased subjective level of relaxation, intensified depth of verbal narrative, and multiplication of visual scenes within imagery tasks.