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Completed

NCT Number: NCT05143983

Perception of Music and Facial and Vocal Emotions in a Population With and Without Depression

Depressed subjects display a cognitive bias of information processing and emotional self-regulation, which reinforces negative experiences more than positive ones, known as the negativity bias. The link between depressive disorder and negativity bias has been much studied in terms of genetic, neurobiology, structural and functional neuroanatomy and cognitive sciences. It has been admitted that depressed subjects show impairment of facial expressions and prosody recognition, and of implicit memory.

Induction of depressive or elated mood with musical excerpts listening in healthy subjects influences facial emotions perception, respectively by reducing or enhancing recognition skills. However, no study to date already explored the interest of music-induced positive mood for alleviating negativity bias in depressed elderly population.

Main objective : to assess the impact of exposure to positive valence musical excerpts, on evaluation of facial emotions intensity, in a population of elderly patients hospitalized for depression, compared to neutral valence music listening.

Secondary objectives : to assess the impact of exposure to positive valence musical excerpts, on facial and vocal emotions recognition, and on implicit memory of faces, compared to neutral valence music listening.

The same methodology is also applied in a sample of control participants over 65 years to study the mood induction effect by music in elderlies.

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Key information

Conditions

Depression Behavior Behavioral Symptoms

Age range

18 year–60 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Centre Hospitalier Le Vinatier

Bron, 69678, France

About this study

The duration of the study, from first to last included subject, is estimated at 6 months, from January to June 2022. Each subject will participate for a period of 5 to 10 days.

Depressed group subjects will be pre-selected from all consecutive patients hospitalized or seen in consultation in geronto-psychiatric ward at Centre Hospitalier Le Vinatier, who agreed to participate in research. Patients will pass a basic cognitive task (MMSE) during the inclusion visit.

Healthy controls will be selected from relatives of patients admitted in Centre Hospitalier Le Vinatier, who agreed to participate in research.

Once included, subjects will be randomized, and will remain blind to study hypotheses until the study end.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Men and Women between the ages of 18 and 60 years old
  • Major depressive episode of moderate to strong intensity, according to DSM-5 criteria, diagnosed by a Psychiatrist for subjects with depression ; GDS < 5 for healthy subjects
  • Being fluent in French

Exclusion criteria

  • - Neurodegenerative disorder
  • Cognitive impairments (MMSE<26)
  • Sensory loss not sufficiently corrected, compromising the perception of oral instructions or visual or auditory stimuli
  • Impairment of awareness or attentional abilities restricting completion of cognitive tasks lasting 40 minutes.

And for Patients with depressive episode:

  • Psychotic or catatonic features of current depressive episode
  • Comorbid psychiatric disorder other than major unipolar depressive or anxiety disorders
  • Current treatment by electroconvulsive therapy

Treatment and study plan

Positive valence music

Behavioral

Subjects will have to listen to 3 minutes of unfamiliar musical excerpts, with positive valence characteristics (fast tempo, major key). They will be told to listen carefully in order to then answer a short questionnaire. The listening will be followed by an liking scale (from 1 : not liked at all, to 5 : liked a lot) and a familiarity scale (from 1 : not familiar at all, to 5 : very familiar).

Neutral valence music

Behavioral

Subjects will have to listen to 3 minutes of unfamiliar musical excepts with neutral valence. They will be told to listen carefully in order to then answer to a short questionnaire. The listening will be followed by a liking scale (from 1 : not liked at all, to 5 : liked a lot) and a familiarity scale (from 1 : not familiar at all, to 5 : very familiar).

Primary outcomes

  1. Emotional intensity score of facial expressions, rated by participants

    Time frame: up to 9 days

    This intensity score will be calculated for a subject as the mean of intensity scores (from 1 to 5) attributed to negative faces and reverse intensity scores attributed to positive faces. This will give a "negativity score". The higher this score, the more negative emotions are judged as intense and the less positive emotions are judged as intense. This measurement will be collected by a computerized interface in two different sessions, one for each experimental condition.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Emotions recognition

    Time frame: up to 7 days

    Percentage of correct answers to facial and vocal emotion recognition

  2. Implicit memory

    Time frame: 1 day

    Percentage of identification of previously presented faces with positive expression

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Hôpital le Vinatier

Other

Registry information

Acronym: MusInDep

Important dates

Study start
2022
Primary completion
2023
Study completion
2023
First posted
Dec 3, 2021
Registry last updated
Jun 11, 2026

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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