Does art reduce pain and stress? A registered report protocol of investigating autonomic and endocrine markers of music, visual art, and multimodal aesthetic experience

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 17; no. 4; p. e0266545
• Main Authors: Fekete, Anna, Maidhof, Rosa M, Specker, Eva, Nater, Urs M, Leder, Helmut
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 14-04-2022; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Analgesics; Art therapy; Authorship; Beauty; Biology and Life Sciences; Blood pressure; Care and treatment; Cognition & reasoning; Complications and side effects; Cortisol; Cultural heritage; EKG; Electrocardiography; Emotions; Esthetics; Evaluation; Health psychology; Hormones; Humans; Influence; Listening; Markers; Medicine and Health Sciences; Methods; Museums; Music; Pain; Pain Management; Patient outcomes; Perceptions; Physiology; Registered Report Protocol; Salivary alpha-Amylases; Social Sciences; Stress; Stress management; Visual effects; α-Amylase; Austria
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266545

The pain- and stress-reducing effects of music are well-known, but the effects of visual art, and the combination of these two, are much less investigated. We aim to (1) investigate the pain- and (2) stress-reducing effects of multimodal (music + visual art) aesthetic experience as we expect this to have stronger effects than a single modal aesthetic experience (music/ visual art), and in an exploratory manner, (3) investigate the underlying mechanisms of aesthetic experience, and the (4) individual differences. In a repeated-measures design (music, visual art, multimodal aesthetic experience, control) participants bring self-selected "movingly beautiful" visual artworks and pieces of music to the lab, where pain and stress are induced by the cold pressor test. Activity of the pain and stress responsive systems are measured by subjective reports, autonomic (electrocardiography, electrodermal activity, salivary alpha-amylase) and endocrine markers (salivary cortisol).