ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neurosci.
Sec. Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1640674
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Human Neuroscience of Music Therapy in Neurodegenerative DiseasesView all 3 articles
An electrophysiological investigation into 'Bagels': a song recorded to reduce subclinical anxiety in youth
Provisionally accepted
- 1Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand
- 2The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
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Receptive Music Therapy allows individuals with sub-clinical anxiety levels to self-medicate when and where they choose, but the effectiveness of self-administered 'music medicine' to enhance psychological well-being is still being investigated. The current study reports on a song ('Bagels') designed to alleviate mild anxiety in adolescents and young adults. A laboratory study was conducted to examine the effect of Bagels on brain states, and upon both subjective and objective measures of state anxiety. Measures of skin conductance and heart rate (HR), and 64-channel Electroencephalography (EEG) were obtained from 30 young adults as they listened to six songs contrasting affective properties. Subjective measures included ratings of a song's pleasantness, arousal, dominance, and likability, as well as estimates of state anxiety obtained immediately after listening to them. Preliminary analyses revealed that the six songs differed significantly in terms of affective ratings, with Bagels rated as more pleasant and less arousing, and having lower state anxiety ratings at its terminus. EEG alpha connectivity was also lowest for the song Bagels, particularly in the brain's frontal lobes. Similarly, Bagels was associated with lower physiological arousal, reflecting less arousal and greater calmness. Combined, the analysis suggest that Bagels has the potential to be an effective digital anxiolytic. Discussion around the promise of music medicine and aspects of its management are presented, along with avenues of further inquiry.
Keywords: music medicine, Anxiety, Youth, brain connectivity, Skin conductance, Heart Rate
Received: 05 Jun 2025; Accepted: 17 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Shepherd, Pedersen, Vashista, Kercher and Hautus. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Daniel Shepherd, daniel.shepherd@aut.ac.nz
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