Improving specificity of the musical mood induction procedure.

The musical mood induction procedure was used to induce 3 negative moods: sadness, fatigue and anxiety. Induction was validated using subjective and physiological measures. One hundred twenty-seven participants listened to one of 18 film soundtrack excerpts for 20 minutes. Physiological response (heart rate, respiration, skin conductance level (SCL), and facial electromyography) was recorded throughout the induction and postinduction phases. Subjective mood ratings (sadness, anxiety, tiredness, valence, arousal) were provided before induction and throughout the postinduction phase. Repeated measures ANOVAs showed increase in valence and decrease in arousal in all conditions after induction, which persisted in the postinduction phase, and an increase in tiredness immediately after induction. Reduction in SCL was strongest in the fatigue condition. However, difference between groups was only evident when comparing fatigue and sadness conditions between 3-10 minutes. Lack of between-group differences and mixed physiological findings suggest that specificity is difficult to achieve through musical mood induction.

Improving specificity of the musical mood induction procedure.

The musical mood induction procedure was used to induce 3 negative moods: sadness, fatigue and anxiety. Induction was validated using subjective and physiological measures. One hundred twenty-seven participants listened to one of 18 film soundtrack excerpts for 20 minutes. Physiological response (heart rate, respiration, skin conductance level (SCL), and facial electromyography) was recorded throughout the induction and postinduction phases. Subjective mood ratings (sadness, anxiety, tiredness, valence, arousal) were provided before induction and throughout the postinduction phase. Repeated measures ANOVAs showed increase in valence and decrease in arousal in all conditions after induction, which persisted in the postinduction phase, and an increase in tiredness immediately after induction. Reduction in SCL was strongest in the fatigue condition. However, difference between groups was only evident when comparing fatigue and sadness conditions between 3-10 minutes. Lack of between-group differences and mixed physiological findings suggest that specificity is difficult to achieve through musical mood induction.

Depressed mood enhances anxiety to unpredictable threat

BackgroundDepression and anxiety disorders (ADs) are highly co-morbid, but the reason for this co-morbidity is unclear. One possibility is that they predispose one another. An informative way to examine interactions between disorders without the confounds present in patient populations is to manipulate the psychological processes thought to underlie the pathological states in healthy individuals. In this study we therefore asked whether a model of the sad mood in depression can enhance psychophysiological responses (startle) to a model of the anxiety in ADs. We predicted that sad mood would increase anxious anxiety-potentiated startle responses.MethodIn a between-subjects design, participants (n=36) completed either a sad mood induction procedure (MIP; n=18) or a neutral MIP (n=18). Startle responses were assessed during short-duration predictable electric shock conditions (fear-potentiated startle) or long-duration unpredictable threat of shock conditions (anxiety-potentiated startle).ResultsInduced sadness enhanced anxiety- but not fear-potentiated startle.ConclusionsThis study provides support for the hypothesis that sadness can increase anxious responding measured by the affective startle response. This, taken together with prior evidence that ADs can contribute to depression, provides initial experimental support for the proposition that ADs and depression are frequently co-morbid because they may be mutually reinforcing.