ITBM-RBM 2000 ; 21 : 158-63

0 2000 editions scientifiques et mkdicales Elsevier SAS. Tous droits rkservts

Original article

Investigation into the effects of music and meditation on galvanic

skin response

N.N. Sudheesh, K.P. Joseph

Department of Electrical Engineering, Regional Engineering College, Calicut, Kerala, India, PIN- 673601

(Received 5 May 1997; revised 26 April 1999; accepted 24 January 2000)

Summary
Music and meditation are nowadays commonly used as relaxation techniques. Meditation is known to
have an effect on the mental state of practitioners. It is considered to have stress-reducing capabilities.
Similarly, music is believed to make a disturbed mind calm and relieved. It is used as a therapeutic agent
in some countries. In this work, the authors use music and meditation as stimuli in psychophysiological
experiments using galvanic skin response (GSR) as an objective method to estimate the emotional
response of subjects. Results show that GSR can be used as a measure of subjective mental states
during music appreciation. The effect of music on GSR is compared with that of meditation. A time-
series model is developed for the response. 0 2000 Editions scientifiques et m6dicales Elsevier SAS

autonomic nervous system I galvanic skin response I impedance measurement I psychophysics I psy
chophysiology

R&urn6 - Effets de la musique et de la meditation sur la rdponse galvanique cutanke.

La musique et la meditation sont communtiment utilis6es comme techniques de relaxation. La
meditation est connue pour avoir des effets sur Mat mental de ceux qui la pratiquent et /‘on
consid&e qu’elle possede un potentiel de rgduction du stress. De m@me, on accorde B la musique la
capacitk de relaxer et calmer les sujets mentalement perturb&, de sorte qu’elle est utilisbe dans
certains pays comme agent thkapeutique. Dans ce travail, les auteurs utilisent la musique et la
meditation comme stimuli dans des experiences de psychophysiologie en utilisant la rkponse
galvanique cutanrSe (RGC) comme mkthode objective de la rkponse Bmotionnelle des sujets. Les
r&u/tats montrent que la RGC peut &re utilisge pour mesurer Mat mental subjectif pendant
I’&oute musicale. Les effects de la musique sur la RGC sont cornpar& B ceux produits par la
meditation. Une modklisation de la RGC a Btk d&elopp6e. 0 2000 Editions scientifiques et
medicales Elsevier SAS

psychophysiologie I mesure d’imp6dance I r6ponse galvanique cutan& I systeme nerveux autonome

INTRODUCTION response to an emotional stimulus. In a typical psycho-

Past decades have witnessed the introduction of a wide
variety of new methods for the study of the functioning of
different systems involved in the control of emotion.
Psychophysiological measures are widely used to under-
stand the functioning of internal systems of the body in
physiological experiment some cognitive, emotional or
behavioural stimulus is applied and psychological changes
are observed.
Galvanic skin response (GSR) is a psychophysiologi-
cal phenomenon exhibited by skin containing sweat
glands [ 11. It consists of a decrease in skin resistance or a
 Music, meditation and GSR
decrease in impedance or a change in potential in res-
ponse to an attention-getting or alerting stimulus. GSR
requires the presence of active sweat glands, which in
humans are brought into action by the sympathetic ner-
vous system [2]. It is believed that sweat rises in ducts,
spreads laterally, hydrating the stratum comeum and
reduces its resistance. Other than sweat gland activity, the
epidermal membranes of the skin becoming permeable in
response to neural stimuli have also been considered to
decrease the skin resistance [3]. Although an acceptable
explanation has not been formulated so far, it has been
established as an indicator of the activity of sympathetic
division of the autonomic nervous system [4].
Emotion is often defined in terms of feelings: subjec-
tive, affective experiences of arousal, pleasure or dis-
pleasure and the specific primary effects of anger, fear,
happiness, sadness, surprise and disgust. The concept of
emotion is often associated with expressive behaviour
such as smiling and with peripheral physiological res-
ponding such as heart rate changes, sweating and skin
resistance change [5]. These physiological changes are
measured to study the functioning of the autonomic ner-
vous system in response to an emotional stimulus. In
this work the authors use music and meditation, two of
the methods popularly used for mental relaxation, as sti-
muli. GSR is used as the physiological measure in these
experiments.
The importance of sensory processes in behaviour
and emotional experience is the subject matter of
psychophysics [6]. Hearing, probably second after
vision, is one of those processes through which we learn
and appreciate the world around us. Through hearing we
derive one of our greatest pleasures - listening to music.
Music is believed to have the capability to reduce men-
tal stress. Classical karnatic music (a type of music
practised in India) was used as a therapeutic agent in
ancient India. GSR, a well-known somatic marker [7],
may be useful in monitoring objective bodily response
during music experience.
Meditation is also known to have a remarkable effect on
the mental state of practitioners. Many scientific studies
have been conducted on its ability to reduce stress. Earlier
studies show that skin resistance [2] as well as thermovas-
cular response [8] vary during meditation. In this work the
authors attempt to use GSR in monitoring meditation and
compare it with the response obtained from experiments
with music.
MEASUREMENT SYSTEM
The measurement system consists of a wave form genera-
tor to provide sine waves of fixed amplitude and fre-
quency, a transducer amplifier to measure skin impe-
dance, a notch filter and a data acquisition unit, as shown
injgure 1.
159
DataAcqusition -, To PC
Figure 1. Block schematic of the measurement system.
A wein bridge oscillator was used to provide sine waves
of fixed amplitude and frequency [9-lo] for constant vol-
tage measurement. Maximum current that can be used for
the measurements is limited by some physiological consi-
derations. Earlier studies indicate that GSR increases
linearly up to a current density of 11 pA/cm2 and then
decreases [3]. The amplitude of the sine waves was deter-
mined to provide a current density of 10 pA/cm2 for the
measurements.
Frequency of the waveform is another important factor
that determines the GSR in the impedance method of
measurements. Electrode polarisation problems are mini-
mised at higher frequencies whereas higher response can
be obtained at lower frequencies. Different frequencies
were tried starting from 700 Hz and decreasing to 20 Hz.
Appreciable response was obtained near 100 Hz and
lower frequencies. To eliminate possible errors due to gal-
vanic electrode potentials at lower frequencies a measure-
ment frequency of 100 Hz was chosen [3].
Silver chloride is commonly used to measure electro-
dermal phenomena to get an appreciable response [3].
Therefore, chlorided silver clip-on metal electrodes were
used for the measurements. The electrode area was chosen
to be 7.5 cm2 to assure a current density of 10 pA/cm2.
Measurements were taken from the human palm, which is
densely supplied by sweat glands. No electrolytes were
used in the experiments [3].
A transducer amplifier with linear characteristics [IO]
was used to measure the skin impedance. Electrodes were
connected to the amplifier to measure the skin impedance.
A notch filter was used to attenuate power frequency
noise. The output voltage Vo of the measurement system
is given by
Vo=K,.R (1)
where K, is a constant and R is the skin impedance.
A PC AT386-based data acquisition unit was used for
data acquisition. The measurement system was calibrated
using a potentiometer connected to the transducer ampli-
fier. Output voltage Vo was sampled using this unit and
the skin impedance was calculated using the formula
R = ((C Vo,2)/N)i’? K, (2)
where K2 is the calibration constant, N is the sampling
frequency and Vo, is the nth sample.
160 N.N. Sudheesh, K.P. Joseph

EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE

Effect of music

These experiments were devised to correlate music effects

with GSR. For this, three classes of music were selected.
Class 1 consisted of karnatic classical songs, class 2 some
popular film songs and class3 western (heavy metal) songs.
Subjects chosen were in the age group of 20-25 years. The
subject was allowed to relax for ten minutes with the electro-
des applied to the palm. Once the contact impedance achie-
ved a stable level, as seen from the oscilloscope, data acqui-
sition was started The subject was asked to listen to the
music with eyes closed to avoid distractions. Recordings
were taken for about ten minutes for every subject. In all,
around 100 subjects were included in the experiments, half
of them males and half females.
Figure 2. GSR in response to music stimulus. Example of a music-res-
ponding subject.
Effect of meditation

Physiological control of GSR through meditation was

studied through these experiments. The initial settings are
the same as that of previous experiments. Once the res-
ponse stabilised the subject was allowed to meditate and
the response was recorded.

RESULTS

In the graphs that follow a decrease in impedance has

been depicted as an upward deflection conforming to
conventions [3]. The response obtained was normalised
by calculating the percentage change in impedance from
the average value of the impedance (43.8 k&l) observed
for the group of subjects. Polynomial regression was used
to obtain the best fit of the data acquired.

Effect of music Figure 3. Distribution graph of the response obtained for music.

Figure 2 shows the GSR of a subject as he listens to different

classesof music. The subject is allowed to relax and the res-
ponse stabilises in 200 seconds. Then he listens to music of
class 1 up to 400 seconds. The response is found to be
increasing and it settles around 16% in 500 seconds. Then
the music is changed to that of class 2 and the response is
found to decrease to 10.5% and it settles there. This subject
was one who preferred classical music to film/folk songs.
If a random group of subjects is selected and every one
subjected to the same type of music their appreciation
levels should constitute a normal distribution. Therefore
the GSR should also constitute a normal distribution if
it indicates the music’s emotional level. We chose
60 subjects having different tastes in music for this test.
The music chosen was a song falling under class 2.
Figure 3 shows the distribution graph and table I shows
the details of x* test for goodness of fit.
revalue was calculated for three degrees of freedom
and found to be 0.4929. This confirms that the responses
constitute a normal distribution at 5% significance level.
This test indicates that the magnitude of the response can
be considered as an indication of the music’s emotional
level. The average response obtained was 4.99 (SD 3.06).
From the experiments conducted with people having
different tastes in music and using different classes of
music, it was observed that if a person is not involved in
the music no response is obtained. Figure 4 shows the res-
ponse of a subject not interested in any type of music.
Effect of meditation
Figure 5 shows a typical response for meditation. The
response reaches a stable level of 15% in 500 seconds. It
 Music, meditation and GSR 161

-10.00
-20.00
I
00.00 Time (second)

00.00 Figure 5. GSR in response to meditation practice.

40.00
G 16.00
E0P 80.~ MU&nub
hsInkml8m I 10.00
5
f?? 0.00
CJ
G s.uu
-20.04
P0
a\0 0.50
-4Oy ,........I......... ,.....,.I i%
100.00 2ooho aa 0 0
Time (second) -5.00

Figure 4. GSR in response to music stimulus. Example of a subject ~......,.,.......,..,,,.,.,,.,~

who doesn’t respond to music. 100.00 200.00 300.00 401 00
Time (second)

remains at this steady-state level during 1000 seconds.
After this the subject was disturbed from meditation to
see the effect on the response. From the graph it is clear
that the response decreases after 1000 seconds.
Data was collected from 50 subjects in this experiment.
The average response obtained was 17.5% (SD 6.35) of
GSR changes.
MODELING
From the experiments it was observed that the variation
in impedance follows the same pattern for the subjects in
the selected group irrespective of the stimulus - music or
meditation. If a model can be developed for this variation
it can be used in predicting the GSR of a subject involved
in music or meditation. We have developed a univariate
time-series model for the varying part of the response.
Figure 6. GSR in response to music stimulus. Time-series used for
modeling.
Figure 6 shows a typical time series obtained for music
stimulus. The non-stationariness in the mean was remo-
ved by taking the first difference of the time series [ 111.
This series was made zero mean by subtracting the mean
from each sample.
The autocorrelation coefficients for different lags of the
stationary time series are shown in figure 7. The coeffi-
cient for lag one was the only significant one, suggesting
the presence of an MA process of order one [ 11, 121. This
was confirmed by calculating the partial autocorrelations
from Yule-Walker equations [l I]. Figure 8 shows the
partial autocorrelation coefficients of the stationary time
series.
162
-------c---------e---------
---------
Tie
Figure 7. Autocorrelation coefficients of stationary time series.
-w-w----e
--e------’
Figure 8. Partial autocorrelation coefficients of stationary time series.
Thus the model was identified as ARIMA (O,l,l). An
ARIMA (0, 1,l) model is represented as
x(k) - x(k - 1) = p+ o(k) - 0, o(k - 1)
where, o(k) = zero mean white noise sequence, 8! = moving
average parameter of order 1, ~1= mean of the time series,
l.t was calculated as 0.026893. 8, was calculated from
r(l)=-&(l
N.N. Sudheesh, K.P. Joseph
------me-
---------
100.00 200.00 300.00 4a .oo
Lag (Second) Time (second)
Figure 9. Actual vs predicted response.
where r( 1) is the estimated autocorrelation for lag 1 and ^e,
is the estimated value of MA parameter of order 1. The
value of 8, was estimated as 0.53513. The final model
was obtained as
x(k) = 0.026893 + x(k - 1) - 0.535 13 x(k - 1) (5)
For validating the model, the residuals were calculated
and checked for randomness by finding out the autocorre-
:-----mm-- lations and partial autocorrelations. It was confirmed that
-*--*----
there was no significant autocorrelations and no signifi-
cant partial autocorrelations for the residuals.
The non-significance of autocorrelations of the residuals
--------f--------- was confn-med by the ~2 test for Box-Pierce Q statistic [ 111.
Q = n g r2(k) (6)
k=l
where m = maximum lag considered, II = N - d; N = Num-
ber of observations, d = order of differentiation in the model
and degrees of freedom calculated as m - p - q, p and q
being the orders of AR and MA processes, respectively.
This model describes the skin impedance variation. This
model was used in predicting the GSR of subjects involved
in music and meditation. Figure 9 shows the actual response
(3) and the predicted response obtained from model (5). The
model was developed using the first 200 values of the time
series and predictions were made for the next 128 values.
Figure IO shows the model applied to the response of another
subject. From the graphs it can be observed that the model
satisfactorily predicts GSR. Response for meditation was
+e^,Z) (4) also found to follow the same model.
 Music, meditation and GSR 163

measurement to monitor the physiological changes in res-

ponse to an emotional stimulus.
The model developed satisfactorily predicts the res-
ponse of a subject involved in music and meditation.
Similar models may be used in generating expected res-
- actual rosponro ponse curves and monitoring the performance of subjects
rmrprediotod rerponm
-20.00 ,I, * .,I "'.,l " , , ,, # I.,. >I I I I '..,,,I 4 I ,,,I practising meditation. They may also be used in stress-
0.00 20.00 40.06 60.00 80.00 related studies using music and meditation.
Time (second)
CONCLUSION
Figure 10. Actual vs predicted response.
The main conclusions of this study are: GSR can be used
as a physiological measure in the study of mental states/
DISCUSSION inducing different emotional states, for example, stress-
relieving methods like meditation and listening to music.
In the experiments it was observed that the response It gives a stable and consistent measure of the involve-
obtained depends on the involvement of the subject in ment of the subject during music appreciation. Impe-
music. Subjects not involved in music or not enjoying the dance variations in a group of subjects were found to fol-
music always gave little response. Response also showed low normal distribution. GSR may indicate the level of
variation according to the personal taste of subjects to concentration during the practice of meditation. The
different classes of music. These facts show that GSR effect of meditation on GSR is found to be more predo-
gives a measure of objective emotional response during minant than that of music. The pattern of impedance
the experience of music. variation is modelled as an ARIMA (O,l, 1) process.
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