Role of noise and music as anxiety modulators: Relationship with ovarian hormones in the rat

This work aims to verify the role of noise and music as anxiety modulators and their relationship with ovarian hormones. For this purpose, female Wistar rats were used and treated, forming different experimental groups, with 17-β-estradiol, progesterone, allopregnanolone, finasteride (inhibitor of the 5-α-reductase) and faslodex (inhibitor of estrogen receptors), with the rats being previously ovariectomized in the case of the first three hormones. All the groups were submitted to stimuli of silence, white noise (sound that has all frequencies) and music (sonata for 2 pianos K. 448 by W.A. Mozart), and to two valuation tests of the anxiety levels: elevated plus-maze and light-dark box transition. In this study, the anxiogenic effect of noise and the anxiolytic effect of music were verified. Both exerted their effects separately from the ovarian steroid hormones, although the influence of progesterone and allopregnanolone increased the anxiolytic power of the music. 17-β-estradiol was the least influential of the ovarian hormones and its effects might be concealed by the intervention of the other two (allopregnanolone and progesterone).