Detecting Anxiety through Song: Mapping Physiological Indicators to Music

• Main Author: Han, Elizabeth Shuang
• Other Authors: Biddiss, Elaine
• Language: en_ca
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: Emotion; Anxiety; 0541
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/30621

This research aimed to help caregivers easily recognize physiological indicators of pediatric anxiety. To this purpose, we first elucidated the physiological indicators of anxiety in children by presenting an anxiety-inducing task while recording biosignals. We discovered patterns suggestive of cardiac reciprocal inhibition, increased respiration rate, and increased electrodermal activity. These patterns informed the optimization of an existing auditory prototype for presenting biosignals to caregivers (biosongs), which maps physiological features to musical elements. The effectiveness of the optimized biosongs for conveying anxiety was evaluated by quantifying the accuracy with which adults could distinguish anxious and calm states by listening to music translated from children's physiological signals. High overall sensitivity (90%), specificity (78%), and accuracy (84%) were achieved, suggesting the promise of biosongs as an effective anxiety screening tool. This technology could lead to profound improvements in caregiving contexts, including anxiety management during medical procedures, and home-based monitoring for chronic conditions.