Depressive behavior and metabolic alterations in mice are musical style-dependent

Abstract

Nowadays, the world population has been affected by two serious psychological disorders, anxiety and depression, but there are few discoveries for new therapies to combat them. Studies have shown that music therapy has its beneficial behavioral effects. Therefore, the aim of the present study it was to investigate the possible effects of two music styles in some lipids and carbohydrate metabolism parameters resulting from behavioral changes related to anxiety and depression. So, mice were used with 30 days of age, divided into 6 groups: G1: saline, G2: Diazepam (DZP), G3: Fluoxetine (FLX), G4: control (no treatment), G5: Rock, and G6: Mozart Sonata. The animals from groups G1, G2 and G3 received treatments by oral route (gavage) for 15 days. The music therapy sessions (2x/day 4 hours/day) occurred in the same period of time at a 65dB frequency for G5 and G6 groups. After being evaluated in spontaneous locomotion, elevated plus maze and forced swimming tests, the animals were euthanized. The lactate, total cholesterol and plasma glucose levels were measured from the blood. No change was observed in spontaneous locomotion test and elevated plus maze. In the forced swimming test animals exposed to Rock showed an increase in immobility time. Furthermore, it was observed an increase in glucose and a reduction in cholesterol levels in the groups exposed to Rock and Mozart, while a decrease of lactate was observed only in group Rock. It was concluded that the auditory stimulus caused by music in mice was able to encourage depressive behavior and alter some lipids and carbohydrate metabolism parameters dependently of the musical style.

Keywords

• anxiety, depression, metabolism, music.