Musical preferences and depression in adolescence

Exploring the relationship between YouTube video characteristics and a viewer's mental health traits among young adults

We investigated the relationship between individuals' mental health traits and the characteristics of YouTube videos they watch. The mental health traits considered were stress, depression, anxiety, and self-esteem, which were measured using a survey questionnaire. We considered violence shown in a video, brightness and saturation of a video as video characteristics. We utilized the viewing history log data of the participants and analyzed the videos they watched on YouTube using computer vision techniques based on deep learning algorithms. The results revealed that viewers' consumption of violent videos was positively related to stress, depression, and anxiety, but negatively related to self-esteem. Individuals with higher levels of stress, depression, or anxiety tended to view darker videos than those with lower levels of stress, depression, or anxiety.

Facial, vocal and musical emotion recognition is altered in paranoid schizophrenic patients

Disturbed processing of emotional faces and voices is typically observed in schizophrenia. This deficit leads to impaired social cognition and interactions. In this study, we investigated whether impaired processing of emotions also affects musical stimuli, which are widely present in daily life and known for their emotional impact. Thirty schizophrenic patients and 30 matched healthy controls evaluated the emotional content of musical, vocal and facial stimuli. Schizophrenic patients are less accurate than healthy controls in recognizing emotion in music, voices and faces. Our results confirm impaired recognition of emotion in voice and face stimuli in schizophrenic patients and extend this observation to the recognition of emotion in musical stimuli.

Can fantasizing while listening to music play a protective role against the influences of sensation seeking and peers on adolescents' substance use?

"The combination of music and drugs proved to be potent, and scientific research has yet to explain it" (Levitin, 2008, p. 74; The World in Six Songs). This study examined if fantasizing while listening to music could represent a potential protective factor against adolescent substance use (cigarette, alcohol, and cannabis). The first hypothesis was that fantasizing while listening to music would moderate (buffer) the link between sensation-seeking and substance use. The second hypothesis was that fantasizing while listening to music would also moderate (buffer) the link between peer substance use and individual substance use. The sample comprised 429 adolescent boys and girls who answered a self-report questionnaire in 2003. They were regular students attending a public high school in Montreal, Canada. The results revealed that fantasizing while listening to music came short of buffering the link between sensation-seeking and substance use among highly musically involved adolescents. Still, fantasizing while listening to music significantly attenuated the relationship between peer substance use and individual substance use (thereby, showing a protective effect) among highly musically involved adolescents. Fantasizing while listening to music did not buffer the relation between either risk factor (sensation-seeking or peer substance use) and substance use among moderately musically involved adolescents.