Questions on MPA, that can be answered
anxiety
The study aims to investigate the effect of exposure treatment in musicians with performance anxiety compared to a relaxation technique on anxiety symptoms and corresponding cardiovascular parameters in musicians.To our knowledge, this is the first randomized controlled study on MPA which will investigate different psychological AND physiological parameters in a therapeutical context using VR. Randomized controlled trials on MPA have been rare since the last 30 years [First, regarding music performance anxiety itself, it remains unclear if a music performance on a “virtual stage” in an artificial environment is able to generate the same stress or anxiety level in musicians as in vivo. By using various psychometric assessments which has been chosen carefully and critically to measure anxiety and its covariables this study can answer this question solidly. Second, in addition, the study can also provide information about how cardiovascular reactivity and cardiac stress reflected by the heart rate variability and blood pressure will emerge in a virtual setting. As highlighted above, in the literature, there are just a few studies that address the association between performance anxiety and cardiovascular reactivity in musicians [In this context, follow-up studies, e.g. multi-center studies with the participation of different universities of music in Germany would be helpful to identify those young music students who have or might be at risk to develop MPA and to offer therapeutic strategies based on study results.