The Effect of a Vibrotactile Device, Somatron , on Physiological and Psychological Responses: Musicians versus Nonmusicians

Abstract

Thirty musicians and 30 nonmusicians participated in this study. Each subject lay on a Somatron™ (a vibrotactile couch) and was presented with two music conditions (Saint-Saens Organ Symphony, 2nd Movement and Dvorak 9th Symphony, 4th Movement) separated by 1 minute of silence. Additionally, half of the subjects received altered renditions of the music with the tempo gradually increased or decreased throughout each example by 20%. Heart rate was recorded continually across 15-second intervals, and each subject completed a questionnaire concerning affective responses. Affective measures indicated highly positive results. Subjects wanted to repeat the exercise, enjoyed the experience, did not want to get up. and found the experience stimulating as well as relaxing. Physiological data indicated no significant differences attributable to any of the experimental conditions, and no relationship between heart rate and any of the affective verbal reports. Interestingly, no subject within the altered music condition realized that the tempo had been changed. Therefore, an additional study was conducted to determine if musicians who were specifically told, “Something has been changed with the music selections you are going to hear” could isolate the alteration. Again, results indicated that subjects did not perceive the tempo change in either direction.