The Effects of Musical Auditory Stimuli on Heart Rate Variability at Rest, Exercise and Recovery Conditions

The objective of this research paper is to evaluate the response of autonomic nervous system to different auditory stimuli rhythm in rest, exercise and recovery conditions. For this purpose, 14 physical education students with an average age of 21.5 0.79 years, weight 64.9 88.42 kg, body mass index 20.2 72.25 kg/m2 and height 176.3 83.99 cm were selected and during four separate sessions (without music, metronome, audio stimuli regular, irregular sound stimuli) evaluated. In each occasion, during three phases of rest, exercise and recovery, a twelve-lead electrocardiogram was recorded. Heart rate variability was measured with a total recording time of 10 min at rest, 10 min at exercise and 15 min at recovery phases. Analysis by repeated measurements ANOVA showed that during rest phase, no significant effects of auditory stimulus on Heart rate variability periods were observed. in contrast to the resting phase, during exercise phase auditory stimuli significantly reduced Heart rate variability. Especially, the effects of syncopated and unsyncopated auditory stimuli were more prominent. Similar to rest phase, during recovery phase, Heart rate variability indices were not significantly changed. The findings of this study showed that entrainment with auditory stimuli had effect on Heart rate variability. Also, the Heart rate variability response was influenced by the auditory stimuli structure. In sum, entrainment with auditory stimuli decreased Heart rate variability.