The effect of harp music on heart rate, mean blood pressure, respiratory rate, and body temperature in the African green monkey

[Effects of classical or heavy metal music in humans and animals: implications for intensive care medicine]

BACKGROUND

The importance of music in intensive care medicine is still controversial and the mechanisms of music are unclear. It is important whether different music styles (classical music [CM], Heavy Metal [HM] show measurable effects on blood pressure (BP) or heart rate (HR) in humans or not. It is also unclear whether behavioral patterns are influenced by music (CM, HM) in animals.

METHODS

We studied the influence of CM (Bach, Orchestral Suite No. 3, BWV 1068) and HM (Band Disturbed: Indestructible) compared to a control group (CO) without music exposure in 120 healthy subjects (60 study subjects, 60 control subjects) and 36 young pigs (18 Pietrains, 18 Wiesenauer Minipigs) according to an identical study protocol (21 minutes of music exposure (CM, HM) or 21 minutes of no music (C0).

RESULTS

We were able to clearly demonstrate in 36 pigs that CM led to significantly more activity behavior than HM or CO (p<0,01). HM caused significantly more stress behavior than CM or CO (p<0,01). In humans, there was a decrease in BPsyst, BPdiast or HR (beats per minute [bpm]) among CM: decrease BPsyst -7,5±9,1 mm Hg, BPdiast -4,9±7,5 mm Hg, HR -7,2±10,2 bpm. This was observed less frequently in HM: BPsyst -3,6±7,1 mm Hg, BPdiast -2,7±6,9 mm Hg, HR -5,9±9,0 bpm. The influence of BP and HR was significantly lower in CO compared to music: BPsyst -2,3±7,2 mm Hg, BPdiast -2,0±7,3 mm Hg, HR -5,8±12,3 bpm.

CONCLUSIONS

BP and HR in humans and behavioral patterns in animals are clearly influenced by music. CM leads more frequently to activity behavior in animals and to lower BP and HR in humans compared to HM or CO. In both animal breeds, stress behavior was observed more frequently in HM compared to CM or CO. Therefore, music may play a role in intensive care medicine.

Heart rate as a measure of emotional arousal in evolutionary biology

How individuals interact with their environment and respond to changes is a key area of research in evolutionary biology. A physiological parameter that provides an instant proxy for the activation of the automatic nervous system, and can be measured relatively easily, is modulation of heart rate. Over the past four decades, heart rate has been used to assess emotional arousal in non-human animals in a variety of contexts, including social behaviour, animal cognition, animal welfare and animal personality. In this review, I summarize how measuring heart rate has provided new insights into how social animals cope with challenges in their environment. I assess the advantages and limitations of different technologies used to measure heart rate in this context, including wearable heart rate belts and implantable transmitters, and provide an overview of prospective research avenues using established and new technologies, with a special focus on implications for applied research on animal welfare. This article is part of the theme issue 'Measuring physiology in free-living animals (Part II)'.

Biological variations in hemodynamics and electrocardiogram rhythms among telemetered cynomolgus monkeys

INTRODUCTION

Telemetered cynomolgus monkeys are widely used in cardiovascular toxicology research. However, the biological variations in their hemodynamics and electrocardiogram rhythms have not been fully elucidated.

METHOD

To determine the potential effects of sex, handling stress, and circadian rhythm on the hemodynamics and electrocardiogram rhythms, data from 23 cynomolgus monkeys, implanted with DSI telemetry devices were examined.

RESULTS

Our data showed that males had a longer RR interval (RRi), slower heart rate (HR), shorter QT and corrected QT intervals (QTc), and lower blood pressure than females. During the night time, the animals showed a longer RRi, PRi, QTi, and QTc; slower HR, and lower blood pressure. Handling stress at 0.25- to 1-h post-treatment caused a decrease in RRi and increase in HR and QTi. For RRi, HR, and systolic, diastolic, and mean blood pressure, the coefficients of variation (CVs) between studies of individual animals were less than 30%; for other parameters, the CVs were less than 20%.

DISCUSSION

We demonstrated that sex, circadian rhythms, and handling stress all contributed towards variations in telemetry data, albeit to different extents. For each individual animal, the biological variation across different studies was relatively small and acceptable.

From music-beat to heart-beat: a journey in the complex interactions between music, brain and heart

Although the potential influence of music in eliciting organic reactions has been appreciated since the ancient Assyrian and Greek cultures, its relationship with body responses has been believed for long to belong to the field of magic. Growing experimental evidence now attests that some kind of music might indeed modulate several cardiac and neurological functions, as well as trigger biochemical measurable stress-reducing effects in certain individuals, mostly depending on their subjective musical education. On this basis, music has been increasingly used as a therapeutic tool in the treatment of different diseases in healthy and ill subjects over recent years (e.g., the so called "Mozart effect"), although the underlying scientific background is still poorly understood. The aim of this article is to review the current scientific evidences about the complex and multifaceted interactions between music and human biology.

Environmental enrichment for primates in laboratories

Abstract. Environmental enrichment is a critical component of Refinement, one of the 3Rs underlying humane experimentation on animals. In this paper I discuss why primates housed in laboratories, which often have constraints of space and study protocols, are a special case for enrichment. I outline a framework for categorising the different types of enrichment, using the marmoset as a case study, and summarise the methods used to determine what animals want/prefer. I briefly review the arguments that enrichment does not negatively affect experimental outcomes. Finally I focus on complexity and novelty, choice and control, the underlying features of enrichment that makes it successful, and how combined with a thorough understanding of natural history we can put effective enrichment into practice in laboratories. Throughout the paper I emphasise the need to evaluate enrichment to ensure it is having the desired effect.