Effects of Background Music on Attentional Networks of Children With and Without Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Case Control Experimental Study.

BACKGROUND: To sustain performance during a task that requires attention may be a challenge for children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which strongly influences motivation for tasks and has been connected to the level of arousal. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to analyze the effect of musical stimulus on attentional performance in children with ADHD and typically developing children. METHODS: A total of 76 boys (34 with ADHD and 42 typically developing) performed the Attention Network Test (ANT) for children under 2 experimental conditions (with and without music). Four attentional measures were extracted from the ANT. We tested the effect of the experimental condition and its interaction with the group using repeated measures ANOVA. RESULTS: We found no significant main effects or interactions for the reaction times of the alerting, orienting, and conflict attentional networks of the ANT (all P>.05). Regarding ANT errors, we found a significant main effect for music, with a moderate effect size (F1,72=9.83; P=.03; ηp2=0.06) but the condition×group interaction was not significant (F1,72=1.79; P=.18). Participants made fewer errors when listening to music compared to the control condition. CONCLUSIONS: Music seems not to interfere in the attentional network in children and adolescents. Perhaps background music affects motivation. Future studies will be needed to validate this. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ReBEC.gov U1111-12589039; https://ensaiosclinicos.gov.br/rg/RBR-8s22sh8.

Effects of background music on numerical and spatial location working memory: differences between extraverts and introverts.

This experimental research explored background music's influence on the performance of numerical and spatial location working memory of extraverts and introverts. Sixty participants (30 extraverts and 30 introverts) were asked to complete numerical and spatial location working memory tests, under the conditions of background music and silence. Results showed a main negative effect of background music on the participants' performance of spatial location working memory. A significant interaction effect between music and personality (extroversion and introversion) on this performance was also observed. It revealed that a more negative effect of music in introverts as compared with extroverts. In contrast, no main or interaction effect was observed for the performance of numerical working memory. According to the influence of music on working memory, introversion-extraversion personality factors of workers such as cashiers or drivers require consideration.

This experimental study explored the influence of background music on the performance of numerical and spatial location working memory of extraverts and introverts. Results showed that the interaction effect between music and personality (extroversion and introversion) on spatial location working memory performance was significant. In contrast, no main or interaction effect was observed for the performance of numerical working memory.

The role of mood and arousal in the effect of background music on attentional state and performance during a sustained attention task.

Across two online experiments, this study explored the effect of preferred background music on attentional state and performance, as well as on mood and arousal, during a vigilance task. It extended recent laboratory findings-showing an increase in task-focus and decrease in mind-wandering states with music-to environments with more distractions around participants. Participants-people who normally listen to background music during attention-demanding tasks-completed the vigilance task in their homes both with and without their chosen music and reported their attentional state, subjective arousal, and mood valence throughout the task. Experiment 1 compared music to relative silence and Experiment 2 compared music against the backdrop of continuous noise to continuous noise alone. In both experiments, music decreased mind-wandering and increased task-focus. Unlike in previous laboratory studies, in both experiments music also led to faster reaction times while increasing low-arousal external-distraction states. Importantly, mood and arousal increased with music and were shown to mediate its effects on reaction time and for the first time attentional state, both separately and together. Serial mediation effects were mostly confined to models where mood was entered first and arousal second and were consistent with the mood-arousal account of the impact of background music listening.

Enhancing social media engagement using AI-modified background music: examining the roles of event relevance, lyric resonance, AI-singer origins, audience interpretation, emotional resonance, and social media engagement.

Introduction: Drawing on the S-O-R model, this study aims to investigate the influence of three stimuli from AI-modified music (i.e., event relevance, lyric resonance, and AI-singer origins), two responses from social media content consumers (i.e., audience interpretation and emotional resonance) on the social media engagement of personalized background music modified by artificial intelligence (AI). Methods: The structural equation modeling analyses of 467 social media content consumers' responses confirmed the role of those three stimuli and the mediating effect of audience interpretation and emotional resonance in shaping social media engagement. Results: The findings shed light on the underlying mechanisms that drive social media engagement in the context of AI-modified background music created for non-professional content creators. Discussion: The theoretical and practical implications of this study advance our understanding of social media engagement with AI-singer-originated background music and provide a basis for future investigations into this rapidly evolving phenomenon in the gig economy.

The Impacts of Background Music on the Effects of Loving-Kindness Meditation on Positive Emotions.

Loving-kindness meditation (LKM) has been widely used in promoting mental health, with positive emotions as an important mechanism. The current study explored the impact of background music on the effects and difficulties of LKM practice. Two hundred participants were randomly divided into six groups, wherein LKM plus music with harmony only, LKM plus music with harmony and melody, and LKM without music were presented in a different order during the intermediate three days of a five-day LKM intervention. Participants reported three types of positive emotions (pro-social, low-arousal, and medium-arousal positive emotions) and the difficulties during meditation (lack of concentration and lack of pro-social attitudes) after each of three sessions. The results of MANOVA indicated that compared to the session without music, incorporating music could evoke more low-arousal positive emotions and pro-social positive emotions without altering the difficulties. However, the results did not reveal significant differences in the effects of music with harmony and music with harmony and melody on both emotions and difficulties. Additionally, practice effects may have influenced the generation of medium-arousal positive emotions and the difficulty of concentration, but the results were inconsistent across groups. Our findings suggest potential benefits for practitioners of LKM in incorporating music during the meditation process, and the directions for future research were further discussed.

Attention, Musicality, and Familiarity Shape Cortical Speech Tracking at the Musical Cocktail Party.

The "cocktail party problem" challenges our ability to understand speech in noisy environments, which often include background music. Here, we explored the role of background music in speech-in-noise listening. Participants listened to an audiobook in familiar and unfamiliar music while tracking keywords in either speech or song lyrics. We used EEG to measure neural tracking of the audiobook. When speech was masked by music, the modeled peak latency at 50 ms (P1TRF) was prolonged compared to unmasked. Additionally, P1TRF amplitude was larger in unfamiliar background music, suggesting improved speech tracking. We observed prolonged latencies at 100 ms (N1TRF) when speech was not the attended stimulus, though only in less musical listeners. Our results suggest early neural representations of speech are enhanced with both attention and concurrent unfamiliar music, indicating familiar music is more distracting. One's ability to perceptually filter "musical noise" at the cocktail party depends on objective musical abilities.

The dual effect of background music on creativity: perspectives of music preference and cognitive interference.

Music, an influential environmental factor, significantly shapes cognitive processing and everyday experiences, thus rendering its effects on creativity a dynamic topic within the field of cognitive science. However, debates continue about whether music bolsters, obstructs, or exerts a dual influence on individual creativity. Among the points of contention is the impact of contrasting musical emotions-both positive and negative-on creative tasks. In this study, we focused on traditional Chinese music, drawn from a culture known for its 'preference for sadness,' as our selected emotional stimulus and background music. This choice, underrepresented in previous research, was based on its uniqueness. We examined the effects of differing music genres (including vocal and instrumental), each characterized by a distinct emotional valence (positive or negative), on performance in the Alternative Uses Task (AUT). To conduct this study, we utilized an affective arousal paradigm, with a quiet background serving as a neutral control setting. A total of 114 participants were randomly assigned to three distinct groups after completing a music preference questionnaire: instrumental, vocal, and silent. Our findings showed that when compared to a quiet environment, both instrumental and vocal music as background stimuli significantly affected AUT performance. Notably, music with a negative emotional charge bolstered individual originality in creative performance. These results lend support to the dual role of background music in creativity, with instrumental music appearing to enhance creativity through factors such as emotional arousal, cognitive interference, music preference, and psychological restoration. This study challenges conventional understanding that only positive background music boosts creativity and provides empirical validation for the two-path model (positive and negative) of emotional influence on creativity.

The effects of background music tempo on consumer variety-seeking behavior: the mediating role of arousal.

Diversified purchases of consumers can help companies balance sales and inventories, which is of great significance to company profits. While existing research has explored the internal factors and external factors that influence consumers' variety-seeking behavior, little is known about the impact of background music, an important environmental cue in retail establishments, on consumer variety-seeking behavior. The present research investigates the influence of background music tempo on consumer variety-seeking behavior, along with its underlying mechanism and boundary condition. Five experiments revealed that background music tempo affects consumers' variety-seeking behavior (Study 1a, 1b & 4). Specifically, fast-tempo background music increases consumers' variety-seeking behavior (Study 1b). Arousal mediates the main effect (Study 2), as fast-tempo background music increases consumers' variety-seeking behavior by enhancing consumers' arousal. Moreover, participants' familiarity with the background music moderates the impact of background music tempo on consumer variety-seeking behavior (Study 3). Only when consumers have a high degree of familiarity with the background music they listen to, the tempo of the background music will have a significant impact on their variety-seeking behavior. These findings provide important theoretical contributions and management implications.

The effects of background music on English reading comprehension for English foreign language learners: evidence from an eye movement study.

Based on previous literature, the present study examines the effects of background music on English reading comprehension using eye tracking techniques. All the participants, whose first language was Chinese, were selected from a foreign language college and all of them were sophomores who majored in English. The experiment in this study was a 2 (music tempo: fast and slow) × 2 (text difficulty: difficult and easy) × 2 (background music preference: high and low) mixed design. Both musical tempo and English reading passage were within-subjects factors, and the level of music listening preference was a between-subjects factor. The results showed that the main effect of the music tempo was statistically significant, which indicated that participants read texts more quickly in the fast-tempo music condition than in the slow-tempo music condition. Furthermore, the main effect of the text difficulty was statistically significant. Additionally, the interaction between the text difficulty and music tempo was statistically significant. The music tempo had a greater effect on easy texts than on difficult texts. The results of this study reveal that it is beneficial for people who have a stronger preference for music listening to conduct English reading tasks with fast-tempo music. It is detrimental for people who have little preference for background music listening to complete difficult English reading tasks with slow-tempo music.

Exploring factors influencing young children's learning from storybooks: Interactive and multimedia features.

Electronic storybooks are increasingly popular with preschoolers. The purpose of our research was to investigate the effects of interactive and multimedia features in electronic storybooks on preschoolers' learning. We assigned 4- to 6-year-old children to different reading conditions in two experiments. Children were required to complete tests for learning outcomes and answer questions about the reading experience. In Experiment 1, children in the interactive (self-paced) group needed to turn the pages by a button on the page, whereas the pages were turned automatically in the non-interactive (system-controlled) group. We found that children in the system-controlled condition performed better in inference making than children in the self-paced condition. In Experiment 2, we used a 2 (Animation: present or non-present) × 2 (Background Music: present or non-present) between-participants design. We found that children's scores of learning and interest in groups with animations were higher than those in groups without animations. This research suggests that electronic books with animations congruent with the learning content promote learning for both adults and young children. Thus, we offer suggestions for designers of electronic books. Moreover, the study provides implications for educators and parents, and we suggest that multi-featured electronic storybooks for preschoolers should be carefully selected.

Effects of Background Music on Mental Fatigue in Steady-State Visually Evoked Potential-Based BCIs.

As a widely used brain-computer interface (BCI) paradigm, steady-state visually evoked potential (SSVEP)-based BCIs have the advantages of high information transfer rates, high tolerance for artifacts, and robust performance across diverse users. However, the incidence of mental fatigue from prolonged, repetitive stimulation is a critical issue for SSVEP-based BCIs. Music is often used as a convenient, non-invasive means of relieving mental fatigue. This study investigates the compensatory effect of music on mental fatigue through the introduction of different modes of background music in long-duration, SSVEP-BCI tasks. Changes in electroencephalography power index, SSVEP amplitude, and signal-to-noise ratio were used to assess participants' mental fatigue. The study's results show that the introduction of exciting background music to the SSVEP-BCI task was effective in relieving participants' mental fatigue. In addition, for continuous SSVEP-BCI tasks, a combination of musical modes that used soothing background music during the rest interval phase proved more effective in reducing users' mental fatigue. This suggests that background music can provide a practical solution for long-duration SSVEP-based BCI implementation.

The effect of background liked music on acute pain perception and its neural correlates.

Music shows tremendous promise in pain relief, especially when considering its non-pharmacological nature. However, our understanding of the precise mechanisms behind music-induced analgesia (MIA) remains poor. The positive emotional state induced by music is one of the key components explaining MIA. To test this possibility and reveal its neural correlates, the present study applied nociceptive laser stimuli to 28 healthy participants when their liked or disliked songs were played as background music, or when they were resting in silence. Differences among conditions were quantified by self-reports of pain intensity and unpleasantness, as well as brain activations in response to acute laser stimuli. As expected, liked music significantly lowered pain ratings to acute painful stimuli compared to disliked music and no music. Consistent with this observation, brain activations in response to acute painful stimuli were deceased within brain areas encoding sensory components of pain, such as the right precentral and postcentral gyri (PreCG/PoCG), brain areas related to affective components of pain, such as the anterior cingulate cortex and bilateral putamen, and brain areas associated with motor control and avoidance reactions to pain, such as the left cerebellum, when liked music was played in the background in comparison to disliked music. Importantly, the relationship between music listening and differences in pain ratings of two music conditions was mediated by the magnitude of right PreCG/PoCG and left cerebellum activations. These findings deepened our understanding of the analgesic benefits of background liked music, a property relevant to clinical applications.

Background Music and Memory in Mild Cognitive Impairment: The Role of Interindividual Differences.

BACKGROUND: Recent research has shown that background music may improve memory consolidation and retrieval. Nevertheless, in the clinical conditions preceding dementia such as mild cognitive impairment (MCI), there is no current evidence speaking to what effect background music during memory tasks has on impaired cognition. OBJECTIVE: Across three experiments, we investigated if background music is able to improve memory performance, the most impacted cognitive domain in amnestic MCI. METHODS: We tested the effect of background music by using a face recognition memory task in patients with amnestic MCI. In Experiment 1, we tested the effect of background music on memory when it was played solely during an encoding phase. In Experiment 2, we explored effects of background music when played during both encoding and recognition phases. In Experiment 3, we explored the role of musically induced arousal on memory. RESULTS: The main finding from these three experiments was that background music played during a memory task did not improve or worsen participant performance. However, when exposed to high-arousal music, memory performance was predicted by individual mood regulation. For low-arousal music conditions, there was a negative relationship between rating scores for music pleasantness and performance on the memory task. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that the benefits of background music on memory in individuals with MCI are modulated by interindividual preferences towards music.

A Study on the Soundscape of Underground Commercial Space in Lu'an City and Hefei City, China.

Soundscape is an important part and one of the main factors of the underground space environment. Field surveys were conducted to evaluate the soundscape of underground commercial spaces and to compare it with the soundscape of the above-ground commercial spaces between two cities (Lu'an City and Hefei City) in China, consequently presenting the construction strategy of the soundscape of underground commercial spaces in urban areas. The results showed that the sound in the shopping center, which people found comfortable, was at the lower to intermediate level. The main sounds that people perceived as "general" sounds were environmental sounds such as music, the humming of the air conditioning, people talking, walking, and the hawking of the stores. Nevertheless, "very comfortable" sounds were background music and the sound of live performances, which were indicated in the majority of people's opinions on evaluating a comfortable feeling, thus reflecting the impact of the sound of mall music on people's cognitive psychology. Therefore, it is necessary to control the volume of environmental noise at a certain level so that people's health is not adversely affected. It also helps shoppers to feel more comfortable psychologically and physiologically.

The impact of background music on film audience's attentional processes: Electroencephalography alpha-rhythm and event-related potential analyses.

Background music is an indispensable part of films and plays an important role in enhancing audiences' attention to scenes. However, few studies have examined the cognitive effect of background music at the neurophysiological level. Using electroencephalography (EEG), the present study examines the effect of background music tempo on the viewer's attentional processes. Participants' (N = 24) EEG responses were recorded while the participants watched segments of action films in three conditions with variations on the presence and tempo of background music (i.e., no background music vs. slow-tempo music vs. fast-tempo music). These responses were analyzed using the alpha-rhythm suppression and event-related potential (ERP) P300, a brainwave indicator of attentional processes. The results suggest that participants' attention levels increased when background music was present (compared to when background music was absent), but there was no difference in participants' attention levels based on tempo. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Differential Background Music as Attentional Resources Interacting with Cognitive Control.

We examined the effects of background music on cognitive task performances using different musical arrangements from an excerpt of Mozart's Piano Sonata K.448. The participants were 126 university students: 70 music majors and 56 nonmusic majors. Three types of musical arrangements were used as background conditions: rhythm-only, melody, and original music conditions. Participants were asked to perform cognitive tasks in the presence of each music condition. The participants' percentage of completed items and accuracy on these tasks were compared for music and nonmusic majors, controlling for the effect of perceived level of arousal and their performance during no background music. Whether a participant's perceptions of background music predicted their cognitive performance was also analyzed. We found that music majors demonstrated decreased task performance for the original background condition, while nonmusic majors demonstrated no significant differences in performance across the arrangements. When pitch or rhythm information was modified, emotional valence and arousal were perceived differently. Perception of the complexity of the background music depending on the arrangement type differed between music majors and nonmusic majors. While the perceived complexity significantly predicted nonmusic majors' cognitive performance, its predictive effect was not found in music majors. The findings imply that perceptions of musical arrangements in terms of expectancy and complexity can be critical factors in determining how arrangements affect concurrent cognitive activity, while suggesting that music itself is not a facilitating or detrimental factor for cognitive performance.

Crossmodal Congruency Between Background Music and the Online Store Environment: The Moderating Role of Shopping Goals.

Despite the robust evidence that congruent background music in the physical store environment positively affects consumer reactions, less is known about its effects in an online context. The present study aims (1) to examine whether congruency via multiple elicited crossmodal correspondences between background music and the online store environment (e.g., perceived lightness, loudness, and coldness of the cue/environment) leads to more positive affective, evaluative, and behavioral consumer reactions and (2) to investigate the moderating role of shopping goals on this crossmodal congruency effect. Previous research showed that low task-relevant atmospheric cues like music can have a negative effect on consumers when they visit a website with a purchase goal in mind. An online experiment was conducted with 239 respondents randomly assigned to a shopping goal (experiential browsing vs. goal-directed searching) and a music condition (no music, crossmodally congruent music, or crossmodally incongruent music). Our results show that crossmodally incongruent background music (vs. no music) leads to more positive consumer reactions for experiential browsers and more negative consumer reactions for goal-directed searchers. Conversely, crossmodally congruent background music (vs. no music) has a positive effect on experiential browsers and no adverse effect on goal-directed searchers. Additionally, the presence of crossmodally congruent background music leads to more positive consumer reactions than the presence of crossmodally incongruent background music, independent of the shopping goal. We extend previous research on multisensory congruency effects by showing the added value of establishing congruency between music and the store environment via multiple elicited crossmodal correspondences in the online environment, countering previously found negative effects of low-task relevant atmospheric cues for goal-directed searchers.

Towards a Characterization of Background Music Audibility in Broadcasted TV.

In audiovisual contexts, different conventions determine the level at which background music is mixed into the final program, and sometimes, the mix renders the music to be practically or totally inaudible. From a perceptual point of view, the audibility of music is subject to auditory masking by other aural stimuli such as voice or additional sounds (e.g., applause, laughter, horns), and is also influenced by the visual content that accompanies the soundtrack, and by attentional and motivational factors. This situation is relevant to the music industry because, according to some copyright regulations, the non-audible background music must not generate any distribution rights, and the marginally audible background music must generate half of the standard value of audible music. In this study, we conduct two psychoacoustic experiments to identify several factors that influence background music perception, and their contribution to its variable audibility. Our experiments are based on auditory detection and chronometric tasks involving keyboard interactions with original TV content. From the collected data, we estimated a sound-to-music ratio range to define the audibility threshold limits of the barely audible class. In addition, results show that perception is affected by loudness level, listening condition, music sensitivity, and type of television content.

Background Music in elderly nursing home: a feasibility explorative study.

SUMMARY: Introduction. This study explores how a background music-listening program within residential facilities for the elderly can influence the general environment and be effective on psychological and behavioral aspects. The feasibility of this type of intervention was explored. Methods and Materials. Twenty-nine residents involved in the experiment were observed for 4 weeks in absence of a music intervention and for the same period during the experimental condition. The intervention consisted in music listening programs, designed by trained music therapists for specific objectives according to the different times of the day. Experimental and control condition effects were compared through the administration of clinical scales and observational grids. Results. The results of clinical scales showed that music listening programs reduced behavioral symptoms in 7 out of 8 people with the most severe neuropsychiatric symptoms. The observational scheme completion showed a clear improvement in all outcomes considered, with the exceptions of agitation (in the morning) and irritability (in the afternoon). Discussion. The study brings several points to attention, including the need to establish a set of criteria in music listening programs selection and administration (e.g. identification of music characteristics related to objectives and outcomes, assessment strategies, involvement of a team of professionals). Implementing evidence-based clinical practice is crucial and the highlighted results encourage the introduction of music-listening approaches as part of therapeutic interventions in elderly nursing homes.

EEG-Microstates Reflect Auditory Distraction After Attentive Audiovisual Perception Recruitment of Cognitive Control Networks.

Processing of sensory information is embedded into ongoing neural processes which contribute to brain states. Electroencephalographic microstates are semi-stable short-lived power distributions which have been associated with subsystem activity such as auditory, visual and attention networks. Here we explore changes in electrical brain states in response to an audiovisual perception and memorization task under conditions of auditory distraction. We discovered changes in brain microstates reflecting a weakening of states representing activity of the auditory system and strengthening of salience networks, supporting the idea that salience networks are active after audiovisual encoding and during memorization to protect memories and concentrate on upcoming behavioural response.