Effect of listening to music compared with no audio on leukocyte coping capacity in adults: an exploratory randomised two-period crossover study
Leukocyte function in healthy adults
Participants completed both conditions during a single study session in a randomised two-period crossover design. During the music condition, participants listened to music or no audio. They were unaware of the music or length of the 5-minute 28-second studio recording of Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” from the 2012 remastered edition of So. The uncompressed WAV recording was played from an iPad Pro through a PreSonus HP4 headphone amplifier and Beyerdynamic DT 700 PRO X headphones at approximately 73 dB. During the time-matched no-audio control condition, participants wore the same headphones for the same duration with no audio playing. A 15-minute washout and settling interval separated the two conditions. Capillary fingertip blood samples were collected immediately before and after each condition to measure leukocyte coping capacity (LCC). Immediately before the participants entered the room, a session-level binary random number was generated in Microsoft Excel using RANDBETWEEN(0,1), assigning either music followed by no audio or no audio followed by music. Participants attended in sessions of one or three, and participants within the same session followed the same assigned sequence. There was no subsequent follow-up.
1. Adults aged 18 years or older 2. Able to understand the study information and provide informed consent 3. Willing to undergo capillary fingertip blood sampling and complete both the music and no-audio listening conditions
1. Known medical condition causing immunosuppression 2. Current use of immunosuppressive medication