Autonomic Responses to Music and Vibroacoustic Therapy in Rett Syndrome

Abstract

We investigated the influence of music and vibroacoustic therapy (VT) on the autonomic nervous system in persons with Rett syndrome (RTT) at the Swedish Rett Centre in Ostersund because professionals and families alike often claim that music plays a very important role in the lives of these people. The families even claim that they sometimes use music as "medicine" to calm down the Rett persons when nothing else seems to help. We studied 21 persons with RTT in the years 2003 and 2004. These were patients coming to the Rett Centre for routine brainstem assessment. The control status was the subject's own baseline autonomic function during rest. Subjects were stimulated using horn music, calming and activating music, then VT and VT with calming music embedded in it. The results show that it was possible to measure responses to music and VT within this group. These responses were unique for different stimuli. The horn music caused physiological arousal, activating music caused sympathetic response, and calming music caused parasympathetic response in our subjects. We also learned that observation of behaviours alone might be misleading and may not represent the autonomic responses accurately. It was also impossible to predict responses to different kinds ofmusic. For example, each patient had different and unique calming music.

We concluded that music and VT have measurable effects on brainstem autonomic functions in persons with RTT. The effects are diverse and difficult to detect by observation of behaviours alone therefore would require formal and clinical monitoring of brainstem autonomic functions. This presents a new area for further research. We particularly hope that a clear understanding of the diverse effects of music and VT on autonomic functions will be helpful when forming the bases of rational uses of music in clinical management of persons with RTT.

Keywords:

• Autonomic nervous system
• brainstem examination
• influences ofmusic and vibroacoustic therapy
• controlled within–subject study