Psychophysiological effects of rhythmic music combined with aerobic exercise in college students with minimal depressive symptoms

Mental health problems are common during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. Previous studies reported that rhythmic music plus aerobic exercise can have a beneficial effect on emotional state. We examined whether the beneficial effect differed between aerobic exercise interventions with or without rhythmic music. A sample of 94 college students who either had no depressive symptoms (n ​= ​47) or minimal depressive symptoms (n ​= ​47) underwent 30-min interventions in a randomized and counterbalanced order: rest, rhythmic music, aerobic exercise and aerobic exercise plus rhythmic music. Response time and accuracy of selective attention to positive and negative images were recorded using the spatial cueing paradigm. Participants’ heart rate during all conditions and perceived exertion after each condition were measured to clarify physiological and perceptual responses, respectively. The results revealed that a multimodal intervention combining aerobic exercise and rhythmic music had a significant facilitatory effect on attentional bias to positive emotional cues in minimal depressive participants (t ​= ​−2.336, p ​= ​0.024), including less perceived exertion and higher heart rate after/during the intervention process. The single-modality intervention of aerobic exercise had significant positive effects for individuals with no depressive symptoms (t ​= ​−2.510, p ​= ​0.016). The multimodal intervention was more effective than the single-modality intervention for individuals with minimal depressive symptoms, but the single-modality aerobic exercise intervention was more effective for individuals with no depressive symptoms, providing new evidence for the specificity of the intervention effect for people with different degrees of depressive symptoms.