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Completed

NCT Number: NCT06581445

Psychophysiological Effects of Birdsongs VS Music

The main goal of this study is to learn the psychophysiological effects of birdsongs on sadness. The main questions it aims to answer are:

1. Can birdsongs alleviate sadness in a short term? 2. Can birdsongs have greater impact on sadness than music? 3. Can birdsongs alleviate sadness for both non-depressed and depressed participants?

Researchers will compare birdsongs to music (a active control) to see if birdsongs works to reduce sadness and also examined the psychophysiological effects of birdsongs in depressed and non-depressed participants.

Participants will:

go through the following stages: baseline, neutral control, 1st sadness induction, 1st intervention, calculation task, 2nd sadness induction, and 2nd intervention.

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Key information

Conditions

Sadness Behavior Behavioral Symptoms Depression

Age range

18 year–30 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Zhejiang University

Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310058, China

About this study

During the baseline phase, participants were instructed to sit quietly and relax. For the neutral control, they viewed an informative video demonstrating the process of plastic injection molding. As for the sadness induction, they were presented with sad film clips from either Hachi: A Dog's Tale or My Brother and Sister. The order of the sad videos was randomized across participants. The intervention stages involved listening to either the cheerful Cuckoo Waltz music or a clip of birdsongs from laughing thrushes. The order of the interventions was randomized as well. The calculation task was employed as a distracter, enabling participants to return to a neutral state. Except for the computational task, the remaining six phases each had a duration of 6 minutes.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

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

Inclusion criteria

  • Aged 18-30 years
  • Right-handed
  • No recent illness or medication use
  • No history of neurological or psychiatric disorders
  • Normal or corrected-to-normal visual acuity (myopic participants wore glasses)
  • Normal hearing

Exclusion criteria

  • Incapable of giving written informed consent to this study
  • Acute high suicide risk at baseline assessment
  • Psychosis

Treatment and study plan

Birdsongs

Behavioral

The participants listened to a clip of birdsongs from laughing thrushes.

Music

Behavioral

The participants listened to a cheerful Cuckoo Waltz music.

Primary outcomes

  1. Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM)

    Time frame: Immediately after the baseline, immediately after the neutral control, immediately after each sadness induction, and immediately after each intervention.

    The SAM scale is a brief and widely used tool for assessing emotional states. The scale is a nonverbal self-report measure of emotion, using a set of cartoon-like manikins. The manikins illustrate nine intensity levels for valence (1 = unpleasant; 9 = pleasant), arousal (1 = calm, 9 = excited), and dominance (1 = controlled; 9 = controlling).

  2. Revision of Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS-R)

    Time frame: Immediately after the baseline, immediately after the neutral control, immediately after each sadness induction, and immediately after each intervention.

    The PANAS is another widely used scale to measure mood or emotion. The Chinese version of PANAS is comprised of 18 items, with 9 items measuring positive affect (e.g., joyful, inspired) and 9 items measuring negative affect (e.g., sad, fearful). Because participants were required to report their feelings repeatedly in this study, 18 items would be too long and tiresome. The 18 items plus "calmness" were used as 19 options for participants to choose. They needed to select one of the emotion words to tag their strongest emotion for the stage that they had just experienced. This revision of PANAS allowed us to capture the specific emotion type.

  3. Mean of Normal-to-Normal Intervals (MeanNN)

    Time frame: Throughout the whole experiment, an average of 6 minutes for each stage.

    MeanNN refers to the average duration between consecutive normal heartbeats, also named inter-beat interval. A higher MeanNN indicates a lower heart rate.

  4. Standard Deviation of Normal-to-Normal Intervals (SDNN)

    Time frame: Throughout the whole experiment, an average of 6 minutes for each stage.

    SDNN measures the overall variability of heart rate. Higher SDNN values indicate greater variability.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Zhejiang University

Other

Registry information

Official study title

Psychophysiological Effects of Birdsongs on Sadness: Compared With Music Between Depressed and Non-Depressed Participants

Important dates

Study start
2023
Primary completion
2023
Study completion
2023
First posted
Sep 3, 2024
Registry last updated
Sep 3, 2024

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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