Journal of the Institute of Industrial Applications Engineers Vol.6, No.1, pp.34–38, (2018.1.

25)
DOI: 10.12792/JIIAE.6.34 Online edition: ISSN 2187-8811 Print edition: ISSN 2188-1758

Paper

Influences of Listening to Music in Study Break on Brain Activity and

Parasympathetic Nervous System Activity

Kenji Moriya∗† Member, Ikusaburo Kurimoto‡ Non-member

Nobuo Ezaki§ Non-member, Masahiro Nakagawa¶ Non-member

(Received October 9, 2017, revised December 8, 2017)

Abstract: Effective relaxation methods during and after a break from “study” (i.e., an experimental task in-
volving a rock-paper-scissors game requiring concentration) were investigated in terms of prefrontal cortex and
parasympathetic nervous system activity. Prefrontal activity was determined from changes in oxy-hemoglobin
(Hb) and deoxy-Hb measured by 10-channel wearable optical topography, and parasympathetic nervous system
activity was analyzed by high frequency components (HF) of fluctuations in instantaneous heart rate (IHR). In
this study, we hypothesized that subjects would relax or experience reduced mental stress when prefrontal activity
became inactive and/or the HF decreased. Relaxation tasks were used during the study breaks were as follows:
(1) just resting (doing nothing); (2) deep breathing; (3) listening to an uplifting song; (4) listening to relaxing
music; (5) listening to classical music. During study breaks in which subjects listened to three kinds of music,
particularly uplifting songs, both prefrontal and parasympathetic nervous system activity tended to become inac-
tive compared with a study break in which subjects did nothing or engaged in deep breathing. Furthermore, when
the study task was performed a second time after a break involving doing nothing or listening to classical music,
prefrontal activity tended to become more active in comparison with activity during the first study task.
Keywords: Prefrontal activity, NIRS, Parasympathetic nervous system activity, Relaxation method

1. Introduction lobe has been determined using near infrared spectroscopy

Concentration is required for effective studying and to (NIRS), representing a comparatively simple method of
achieve positive results on various tasks. Since concentra- measuring brain activity (e.g.[4]). It is also well known
tion depends on personal ability and is difficult to maintain that parasympathetic nervous system activity can be deter-
in the long term, individuals often must rest before starting mined from heart rate fluctuations (HRF) in order to esti-
the next task. Effective relaxation methods vary for different mate whether a nervous condition is rest[5]. Therefore, we
types of tasks (e.g., strenuous or light physical work, rou- attempted to investigate which relaxation task (and espe-
tine work, sports, listening, watching, consideration, imag- cially which type of music) is the best rest method for a
ing while studying). In this study, we focused on effective study break in terms of changes in blood flow and HRF.
rest methods and attempted to investigate which tasks are 2. Experimental Methods
best for a study break and for maintaining concentration.
Previous research indicated that listening to music was an 2.1 Experimental Procedure To simulate a study
effective task to ensure better rest[1]. task requiring concentration, subjects were instructed to
As is well known, the relationship between emotions and lose at a “ rock-paper-scissors ” game that they played
brain activity has been investigated by electroencephalo- against a random displayed hand at a 1-sec throwing inter-
gram (e.g.[2] [3]). More recently, blood flow of the frontal val: this study task was expressed as Janken task. Subjects
were also given the following five study break relaxation
∗ Corresponding Author: [email protected] tasks: (1) just resting (doing nothing; i.e., the control task);
† Department of Production Systems Engineering, National Institute of (2) deep breathing (as a classic, effective rest method); (3)
Technology, Hakodate College
14-1 Tokura-cho, Hakodate 042-8501, Japan
listening to their favorite uplifting song (selected by each
[email protected] subject); (4) listening to their favorite relaxing song (se-
‡ Department of Information Engineering, National Institute of Technol- lected by each subject); and (5) listening to classical music
ogy Kisarazu College (in order to compare with the two aforementioned types of
2-1-1 Kiyomi-dai Higashi, Kisarazu 292-0041, Japan
§ Department of Information and Control Engineering, National Institute
music); the first 1 min of Spring from The Four Seasons by
of Technology, Toba Collage Vivaldi was chosen because this music was reported to in-
1-1 Ikegami-cho, Toba City 517-0012, Japan clude a 1/f fluctuation (i.e., pink noise) which people find
¶ Department of Electrical, Electronics and Information Engineering, Na- comforting [6]. The favorite uplifting song and the favorite
gaoka University of Technology
1603-1 Kami-Tomioka-cho, Nagaoka 940-2137, Japan
relaxing song selected by each subject did not have the 1/f

34 Published by IIAE. 2018

 Influences of Listening to Music in Study Break on Brain Activity and Parasympathetic Nervous System Activity 35

Table 1: Brain activities determined from changes of

oxy-Hb and deoxy-Hb.

of inactivity, we proposed that the subject was taking a rest

Figure 1: Experimental procedure and example of Janken in the current task compared with previous task.
task.
2.3 Parasympathetic Nervous System Activity Au-
tonomic nervous system activity was analyzed by the fre-
fluctuation in their frequency component at least in the part quency component ratio determined from a power spectrum
of used songs for the experiment. of HR fluctuations. IHR was determined from time inter-
The duration of the study task was 2 min; the duration of vals of adjacent R waves of an electrocardiogram (RAC-
each relaxation tasks as 1 min; subjects were instructed to 3502, Nihon Koden Ltd.). The IHR power spectrum was
keep their eyes open during these tasks. The first 30 sec of calculated every 30 sec using a discrete Fourier transform
the procedure consisted of a rest period; subjects then com- algorithm. The low frequency (LF) range was 0.04 to 0.15
pleted the 2-min study task and then rested; each rest period Hz and the high frequency (HF) range was 0.15 to 0.4 Hz.
involved a 1-min relaxation method. Afterwards, subjects High frequency components (%HF), which represent the ra-
repeated the 2-min study task and took a 30-sec rest. Sub- tio of HF component to HF + LF, is used as an index of
jects repeated this procedure with the different five relax- parasympathetic nervous system activity ([5] [7] [8]). Al-
ation methods at adequate time intervals. This experimental though HF is often used for a parasympathetic index, %HF,
procedure was shown in Fig. 1. which means a normalized index, was adopted in order
As the study task was completed twice, if prefrontal ac- to emphasize a change of parasympathetic nervous system
tivity in the second study task increased or was maintained activity and reduce an influence from very low frequency
at the same level, this implied that the relaxation task effec- component in this research.
tively maintained the concentration level attained during the
3. Results and Discussion
first study task.
During this procedure, instantaneous heart rate (IHR) and Simultaneous measurements of blood flow in the prefrontal
oxy-hemoglobin (Hb) concentration in the prefrontal area cortex and heart rate (HR) were conducted in eleven sub-
were measured simultaneously. The five conditions were jects (healthy students aged 19-21 years; eight males and
measured three times each on separate days. The five relax- three females). We investigated which regions of the pre-
ation tasks were conducted with an order randomized. As frontal become active during the study task. The study
each relaxation task was repeated three times, there were task, that is, rock-paper-scissors, is roughly the equivalent
33 measurements in total. Statistical analyses were not con- of “Janken” in Japanese, which was the task used in the cur-
ducted because we felt that a sample size of 33 was inad- rent study.
equate for statistical analysis; qualitative comparisons are Fig. 2 shows the proportion of each CH that became ac-
thus described in this report.
2.2 Brain Activity Activity in the prefrontal area was
investigated by measuring changes in oxy- and deoxy-Hb
concentrations determined by 10-channel (CH)-wearable
optical topography (WOT-100, Hitachi High Technologies
Ltd.,) with NIRS at a sampling frequency of 5 Hz. If oxy-
Hb increased and deoxy-Hb decreased, this indicated that
the corresponding region of the prefrontal area is active
compared with the previous condition. When oxy-Hb de-
creases and deoxy-Hb increases, prefrontal activity is in-
Figure 2: Active rates in % during the Janken task of each
active (summarized as Table 1). In this study, if Hb in
channel (CH) of the prefrontal cortex. The listed values in-
the regions surrounding the CHs involved in the study task
dicate the rates at which each area became active per total
changed during the study break as per the above definition
number of measurements (n = 33).

IIAE Journal, Vol.6, No.1, 2018

 36 K. Moriya, I. Kurimoto, N Ezaki and M. Nakagawa

Figure 3: An example of the degree of Hb changes and IHR through one set of the experimental protocol. The
upper panel shows the degree of change at 8 CH. The lower panel depicts changes in IHR.

Figure 4: Rates of prefrontal inactivity in each brain area Figure 5: Rates of prefrontal activity during the second
during the five relaxation tasks performed after the Janken Janken task after the five relaxation tasks.
task.
oxy-Hb concentration and gray dotted line indicates those
tive during the first Janken task results indicated that ac- of deoxy-Hb. Each black dot indicates a heartbeat. This
tive rates in CH 8 and CH 14 of the right and left pre- subject was 20 years old, healthy, and right-handed. In this
frontal cortices, respectively, were higher than other chan- example, oxy-Hb increased and deoxy-Hb decreased during
nels. Of course, the regions activated by study tasks depend the first and second Janken tasks, indicating the initiation of
on the difficulty of the task or the level of concentration re- prefrontal activity at CH 8 during the Janken task. Mean-
quired. The Janken task, which required a quick judgment while, the prefrontal activity of CH 8 became inactive and
and a quick hand motion, involved to the areas around CH 8 the IHR decreased during rest periods.
(right prefrontal cortex) and CH 14 (left prefrontal cortex). Rates of prefrontal inactivity in each brain area during the
Thus, in the current study, we focused on prefrontal activity five relaxation tasks performed after the first Janken task are
around CH 8 (i.e., CHs 7, 8, and 10) and CH 14 (i.e., CHs shown in Fig. 4A (left prefrontal cortex; CHs 13, 14, and 16)
13, 14, and 16) when investigating effective relaxation after and Fig. 4B (right prefrontal cortex; CHs 7, 8, and 10). Col-
the Janken task. ored bars represent the five relaxation tasks: doing nothing,
Figure 3 shows an example of the simultaneous measure- deep breathing, listening to a favorite uplifting song, listen-
ment of the degree of change in Hb concentration of CH 8 ing to a relaxing song, listening to classical Spring by Vi-
and change in IHR during Janken tasks and rest periods (do- valdi. All measured channels of the prefrontal cortex tended
ing nothing). The dotted vertical line indicates that the sub- to be inactive while the subject listened to music in compar-
ject started the next task. The solid line depicts changes in ison with doing-nothing and deep breathing. However, rates

IIAE Journal, Vol.6, No.1, 2018

 Influences of Listening to Music in Study Break on Brain Activity and Parasympathetic Nervous System Activity 37

Figure 7: The condition rates of both prefrontal inactive and

high average %HF during the relaxation tasks. Satisfying
Figure 6: The increase rate of average %HF from the first both conditions indicates the possibility that subjects were
Janken to the relaxation tasks. relaxed both in terms of both brain activity and static stress.

of inactivity were not significantly different among the var- quency component, melody (major key or minor key).
ious types of music.
As shown in Fig. 5, rates of prefrontal activity during the 4. Conclusion
second Janken task after resting (do-nothing) and listening Effects of relaxation tasks during and after a study break
to classical music (Spring) tended to be higher than those on parasympathetic nervous system activity and prefrontal
of other tasks, although these differences were not statis- activity were examined in 11 Kosen (Our institute, Na-
tically significant. This result indicates whether subjects tional College of Technology is called Kosen) students. In
could concentrate to study task again or not. In other words, this study, we focused particularly on the difference among
it implies whether relaxation tasks affect on not only sub- types of music (uplifting song, relaxing song, and classical
jects’ physical relaxation but also maintaining the concen- music) because many Kosen students answered that they
tration in the next study task. However, in this experiment, listened to music during their study breaks. The Janken
the score of study tasks (i.e., losing-rate in ”rock-paper- task, which was used as a study task, activated CHs 8 (right
scissors” game) was not recorded. This significant effect prefrontal cortex) and 14 (left prefrontal cortex). All three
is needed to investigate in other study task, for instance, types of music tended to decrease subjects ’prefrontal ac-
mental arithmetic. tivity during the study break and rest period (doing nothing)
We investigated the changes between average %HF of and classical music activated the areas in the next Janken
the first Janken task and that of each relaxation task. The task. From the viewpoint of parasympathetic nervous sys-
increase in average %HF from the first Janken to the relax- tem activity, all relaxation tasks tended to result in subjects
ation tasks indicates the subject ’s decrease in static stress being well rested; the %HF when listening to music was
during the study break. Although the difference was not sta- slightly higher than that when resting and or engaging in
tistically significant, the %HF of the three music relaxation deep breathing. In terms of both prefrontal activity and
tasks (listening to a favorite uplifting song, favorite relaxing parasympathetic nervous system activity, music, especially
song, or classical music) tended to be higher than the other uplifting songs, induced better relaxation during a break
two tasks (Fig. 6). from the Janken task. Importantly, however, these tenden-
Figure 7 indicates the rate at which the subject rested or cies depended on the individual and were attributed only to
experienced reduced stress during the study break in terms our Janken tasks.
of both prefrontal activity and parasympathetic nervous sys- The effects of these relaxation methods on other study
tem activity. Subjects tended to be more well rested when tasks (e.g. easy/difficult mental calculations, memorizing
listening to all three types of music compared to other relax- words/sentences, deep consideration of physical phenom-
ation tasks; the rate of prefrontal inactivity when listening to ena, with/without a physical refresh like stretching) should
the subject ’s favorite uplifting song was the highest among be investigated in subsequent studies. In addition, since lis-
the three types of music, and when listening to the subject ’ tening to music appears to be a good relaxation technique
s uplifting song, it was four times higher than that of the just for use during study breaks, further experiments under dif-
resting (doing nothing) condition. Interestingly, subjects se- ferent conditions (e.g. differing listening durations and/or
lected their own favorite songs, uplifting songs were differ- study task periods, types of music, and tempos) are re-
ent songs. Regardless of whether the selected songs were quired. This experiment was conducted in healthy Kosen
same or not, subjects were the most relaxed after listening students aged 19-21 years (i.e., young adults). Different re-
to their favorite uplifting songs. This finding indicates that sults might be found among younger students or those from
subjects can have a mental refresh or not could more influ- different cultures.
ence on it. ”Favorite” emotion might be significant factor
rather than other music factors e.g., tempo, included fre-

IIAE Journal, Vol.6, No.1, 2018

 38 K. Moriya, I. Kurimoto, N Ezaki and M. Nakagawa

Ikusaburo Kurimoto (Non-member) received

a Ph.D. degree in Information Science and Tech-
Acknowledgment nology from The University of Tokyo in 2009,
and is presently a Professor at NIT, Kisarazu Col-
A part of this study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for
lege. He is a member of IPSJ, SICE, JSEE (board
Scientific Research (K.M. JP16K06397, N.E. JP15K01111) director in 2017) and IEICE.
from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and a
Tri-Institutional Collaborative/Cooperative Educational Re-
form Project (AT-WG3) from MEXT.
Nobuo Ezaki (Non-member) received a Ph.D.
References degree in engineering from Toyohashi University
of Technology in 1996, and is presently a Profes-
sor at NIT, Toba College. He is a member of
[1] H. Kanbara, I. Kurimoto, N. Kobayashi, S. Yanagiya, K. ISCIE, JSMBE, JSEE and IEICE.
Moriya and M. Nakagawa, “An effect of rest methods on
concentration for sustainable learning”, CiNii Article (On-
line Open Access), pp.21-25, 2016.
[2] S. Nishida, T. Hatada and M. Nakagawa, “An Estimation
Method of Cognitive States with Fractal Dimensions of Masahiro Nakagawa (Non-member) received
Ph.D. degree from Nagoya University in 1988,
EEG”, Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on
and is presently Professor of the department of
Humans and Computers, pp.195-200, 2008. science of technology innovation and the direc-
[3] C. Gélinas, M. Boitor, M. Ranger, C.C. Johnston, M. tor of information processing center at Nagaoka
University of Technology. His major discipline is
Marchie, F. Cervero, M. Choiniére, “Is near infrared spec-
concerned with non-linear phenomena in physi-
troscopy valid for the detection of procedural pain in postop- cal and physiological systems, e.g. chaos, fractal
erative cardiac surgery intensive care unit adults?”, Journal and neural networks, related to the brain function analysis focusing
of Near Infrared Spectroscopy(online access), 2017. on the state-of-the-art in sensibility information engineering field.
He is also a member of JPS, JSAP, JNNS, JLCS and IEICE et al..
[4] S. Matsushita and M. Nakagawa, “Emotional Information
Analysis using Optical Topography”, IEIEC Trans. Funda-
mentals, Vol.J88-A, No.8, pp.994-1001, 2005.
[5] S. Akselrod, D. Gordon, F.A. Ubel, D.C. Shannon, A.C.
Barger and R.J. Cohen, “Power spectrum analysis of heart
rate fluctuation: a quantitative probe of beat-to-beat cardio-
vascular control”, Science, 213, pp.220-222, 1981.
[6] Editorial board of “Encyclopedia of Sound”, “Encyclopedia
of Sound”, Maruzen Publishing, p.33, 2006. ISBN978-4-
621-07660-6
[7] K. Moriya, Y. Chiba, H. Yoneta, R. Akiyama and H. Tazawa,
“Simultaneous measurement of instantaneous heart rate and
breathing activity in newly hatched chicks”, Br. Poult. Sci.,
Vol.44, No.5, pp.761-766, 2003.
[8] K. Moriya, R. Akiyama, E.M. Dzialowski, W.W. Burggren
and T. Hiroshi, “Development of heart rate circadian rhythm
in chickens”, Avian and Poultry Biology Reviews, Vol.15,
No.3/4, pp.211-218, 2004.

Kenji Moriya (Member) received a Ph.D. de-

gree in engineers from Muroran Institute of
Technology in 2001, and is presently a Profes-
sor at National Institute of Technology, Hako-
date College since 2016. He has worked on bio-
measurement engineering and signal processing.
He is a member of IIAE, JSWE, JSEE and IE-
ICE.

IIAE Journal, Vol.6, No.1, 2018