IMaSB: Influence of Music Affecting Swing of Body

Project by:
JingJun Ni, Mingrui Zhuang, Shiwei Yang, Zhenhan Hu

Postural stability is the crucial ability to maintain one’s balance while standing still or moving. It is controlled by the central nervous system, which interprets sensory information from visual, inner ear, and muscles. If the ability to maintain body balance and coordination is impaired, quality of life can be largely affected due to increased risk of falls and social isolation by reduced mobility. In a virtual environment, it is proven that visual motion alone can induce body sway, but what happens if we add some music?

Music, an important component of our lives and a symbol to many cultures, is widely acknowledged as an effective tool to reduce anxiety, but can it also influence balance? Over the years, human behaviorists, kinesiologists, biomechanists, cognitive scientists, and researchers across different fields have been interested in studying how music affects body sway while standing. Waer et al. discovered that listening to Mozart's Symphony No. 41 "Jupiter" improved postural performance for middle-aged women, , suggesting that a reduction in body sway. In contrast, another study conducted by Ross et al. found that increasing the groove provided by music would enhance body sway.

In the following slides, we will walk through different conditions that explore how music influences our postural sway:

• No Music: Observe your center-of-pressure (CoP) trajectory in silence.
• Unmodified Mozart's Jupiter: See how the CoP changes with classical music playing.
• Modulated Loudness: The music’s volume oscillates at different frequencies (0.1 Hz and 0.25 Hz). Watch for any changes in CoP displacement and torque.
• Final Comparison: Compare all conditions across multiple subjects side by side.

Each slide includes a time slider, play/pause/rewind buttons, and bar charts showing metrics like Traveled Distance and Accumulated Torque to help quantify postural sway. We hope this gives you insight into how something as simple as music can influence your balance!

Youtube video: body swing research.

I like

Viewing the VR environment while listening to no music.

I wish

Viewing the VR environment while listening to an unmodified version of Mozart's Jupiter.

What if

Viewing the VR environment while listening to Mozart's Jupiter as its loudness shifted at 0.1 Hz.

End up

Viewing the VR environment while listening to Mozart's Jupiter as its loudness shifted at 0.25 Hz.

Influence of Music affecting Swing of Body