Maybe Try Mozart to Improve SITA 24-2 Tests?

"Music hath charms to soothe the savage beast"—and the inattentive patient undergoing perimetry. The second movement of Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, applied in this study, characterized by a slow, regular tempo and harmonic stability, created a calming auditory environment that has been associated with neurophysiological changes, including modulation of electroencephalogram activity and improved cognitive focus. These musical and neural properties are likely contributors to the cognitive and emotional benefits observed in the participants and may explain the reduction in fixation loss noted in the present study. Click image to enlarge. The reliability of visual field (VF) assessments is a critical determinant of test quality. Several patient-related factors can affect this, including the individual’s understanding of the testing procedure, adherence to instructions during the test, level of attention and concentration and emotional states such as anxiety. Inadequate reliability may result in inaccurate or misleading outcomes, thereby impairing the clinician’s ability to identify pathological changes and accurately evaluate disease progression.Researchers in Thailand recently explored whether listening to Mozart can improve the reliability of VF testing among a large cohort of healthy Thai individuals. Previous studies done in largely Caucasian populations have determined that “pretreatment” with Mozart before testing significantly improved the measurement reliability compared with individuals without glaucoma or neurological disorders.While the fixation loss, false negative and false positive percentages in their study were within the standard range in all groups, and it could be assumed that there was no clinical difference between groups, the team found that the improvement in the percentages of fixation loss in the Mozart group compared to the control group may be attributed to “the Mozart effect,” which improves spatial reasoning for a short duration (i.e., within 10 min).“This may be attributed to the music’s ability to stimulate temporal–spatial reasoning and increase participant concentration,” the study authors suggested in their paper. “These findings should be considered hypothesis-generating and suggest that music may have potential as an adjunctive approach to support test performance in clinical settings.” You can watch a performance of Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major here.Automated perimetry was conducted on the right eyes of 163 perimetry-naive participants using a Humphrey Field Analyzer III (SITA standard 24-2 program). Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: (1) control (no auditory input), (2) noise-canceling headphones without music and (3) headphones playing Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major (opus K. 448). Each group received a 10-minute pretest intervention according to their group assignment. In the control, headphones and Mozart groups, the proportions of female participants were 72.2%, 68.5% and 79.6%, respectively. The median age was 35 years in both the control and headphones groups and 34 years in the Mozart group. Most participants demonstrated a BCVA of 20/20, which was observed in 70.4% of the control and headphones groups and 55.7% of the Mozart group. The median IOP was 13mm Hg in the control group and 14mm Hg in both the headphones and Mozart groups. In the present study, which was published in Journal of Ophthalmology, Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos was selected because of its well-documented positive influence on attention and emotional regulation. The researchers hypothesized that other musical compositions with comparable tempo, rhythm and harmonic structure may yield similar effects and could be explored in future research.“Subsequent studies may consider incorporating culturally relevant, participant-selected and relaxing music to enhance individual engagement and satisfaction,” they suggested. “Regarding direct assessment of attentional engagement during visual field testing, the incorporation of gaze tracking or eye position variability analyses would enable direct evaluation of eye movements and may provide additional physiological insight into fixation stability and attention.”Future investigations are also needed in clinical populations, particularly in individuals with glaucoma. The incorporation of music in such settings may contribute to improve test reliability and patient experience.Click here for the journal source. Wongvisavavit R, Phoolsawat A, Piriyalukkul P, et al. Mozart’s music reduces fixation loss in visual field testing. J Ophthlamol. 2026;2026:9984011. This article was developed by the editorial staff in conjunction with experts in the field. In the process, AI may have been among the editorial tools used to meet the goals of human editors, who approved all content.