Performance anxiety : cardiorespiratory activity in high- and low-anxious professional music students in a performance situation

Questionnaire studies indicate that high-anxious musicians may suffer from hyperventilation symptoms before and/or during performance. Reported symptoms include amongst others shortness of breath, fast or deep breathing, dizziness and thumping heart. A self-report study by Widmer, Conway, Cohen and Davies (1997) shows that up to seventy percent of the tested highly anxious musicians are hyperventilators during performance. However, no study has yet tested if these self-reported symptoms reflect actual cardiorespiratory changes just before and during performance. Disturbances in breathing patterns and hyperventilation may negatively affect the performance quality in stressful performance situations. The main goal of this study is to determine if music performance anxiety is manifest physiologically in specific correlates of cardiorespiratory activity. We studied 74 professional music students of Swiss Music Universities divided into two groups (high- and lowanxious) based on their self-reported performance anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory by Spielberger). The students were tested in three distinct situations: baseline, performance without audience, performance with audience. We measured a) breathing patterns, end-tidal carbon dioxide, which is a good non-invasive estimator for hyperventilation, and cardiac activation and b) self-perceived emotions and self-perceived physiological activation. Analyses of heart rate, respiratory rate, self-perceived palpitations, self-perceived shortness of breath and self-perceived anxiety for the 15 most and the 15 least anxious musicians show that high-anxious and low-anxious music students have a comparable physiological activation during the different measurement periods. However, highanxious music students feel significantly more anxious and perceive significantly stronger palpitations and significantly stronger shortness of breath just before and during a public performance. The results indicate that low- and high-anxious music students a) do not differ in the considered physiological responses and b) differ in the considered self-perceived physiological symptoms and the selfreported anxiety before and/or during a public performance.

[Voyage en Italie : 1824-1830]. , Sta Maria Novella : [vue perspective] : [dessin] / h. L. [Henri Labrouste]

Référence bibliographique : Weigert, 140

[Voyage en Italie : 1824-1830]. , [Tombeaux] à Sta Maria Novella : [coupe et élévation des tombeaux (trois travées)] : [dessin] / h. L. [Henri Labrouste]

Référence bibliographique : Weigert, 142

[Voyage en Italie : 1824-1830]. , Détails de l'ordre de la façade de l'Eglise de Sta Maria Novella par L. B. Albert : [plan de la partie gauche de la façade et détails de deux colonnes] : [dessin] / h. L. [Henri Labrouste]

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[Voyage en Italie : 1824-1830]. , Sta Maria delle Grazie fuori delle mura. Sur une Echelle de 0005 P.M. : [vue perspective d'un détail de la corniche, plan et vue perspective frontale de l'église] : [dessin] / h. L. [Henri Labrouste]

Référence bibliographique : Weigert, 14

[Voyage en Italie : 1824-1830]. , Bénitier dans l'Eglise de S. Maria dei Servi. S. Maria dei Servi. Madona di Baracano : [élévation du bénitier, plan des deux églises] : [dessin] / h. L. [Henri Labrouste]

Référence bibliographique : Weigert, 39-40

[Rome. Basilica di Santa Maria in Aracoeli]

Référence bibliographique : Weigert, 507

[Rome. Basilica di Santa Maria in Aracoeli]

Référence bibliographique : Weigert, 549

[Rome. Basilica di Santa Maria in Domnica]

Référence bibliographique : Weigert, 551