{
  "abstract": "Introduction Poststroke depression affects approximately 30% of stroke survivors and is linked to worse functional outcomes, cognitive decline, reduced quality of life and increased mortality. While early treatment of poststroke mental health conditions is critical, current pharmacological options offer limited efficacy. Music listening interventions are a promising, low-risk, accessible and affordable alternative that may enhance recovery through engagement of reward-related brain circuits. However, most music listening studies have focused on the acute stage of stroke, lack objective measures of music engagement and rarely assess underlying neural mechanisms. To address these gaps, we propose a feasibility study of a remotely delivered music-listening intervention for individuals with chronic stroke, incorporating objective tracking of music exposure and multimodal assessments of mental health, cognitive, neural and physiological changes.Methods and analysis We will conduct a parallel group randomised controlled feasibility trial enrolling 60 patients with chronic stroke from a well-characterised stroke registry in New York City. Participants will be randomised to either an intentional music listening (IML) group or an active control group that listens to audiobooks. The study includes a 4-week preintervention period during which no treatment is administered; this phase is designed to assess the stability of outcome measures. Following this, participants will engage in 1-hour daily listening sessions over a 4-week intervention period. All listening activity (ie, track identity, duration and engagement) will be continuously tracked using custom open-source software, providing a measure of treatment dose. Behavioural outcomes related to mental health will be assessed at baseline, preintervention, postintervention and 3-month follow-up. Multimodal biomarkers (functional and structural MRI, electrodermal activity and heart rate) will be collected preintervention and postintervention. The primary objective is to establish feasibility, defined by rates of retention and adherence, treatment fidelity, feasibility, acceptability and participant burden. Secondary outcomes include recruitment and randomisation rates. This trial will provide essential data to inform the design of future large-scale clinical studies of IML for poststroke mental health recovery.Ethics and dissemination The study was approved by New York University’s Institutional Review Board (FY2024-8826). All human participants will provide written informed consent prior to participation and will be adequately compensated for their time. Results will be reported in peer-reviewed journals.Trial registration number NCT07127159.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York, USA",
        "Music and Audio Research Laboratory (MARL), New York University, New York, New York, USA",
        "Center for Language, Music, and Emotion (CLaME), New York University, New York, New York, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Vasiliki Provias"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Music and Audio Research Laboratory (MARL), New York University, New York, New York, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Mehmet Atilay Kucukoglu"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York, USA",
        "Music and Audio Research Laboratory (MARL), New York University, New York, New York, USA",
        "Center for Language, Music, and Emotion (CLaME), New York University, New York, New York, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Atlas Robinson"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York, USA",
        "Music and Audio Research Laboratory (MARL), New York University, New York, New York, USA",
        "Center for Language, Music, and Emotion (CLaME), New York University, New York, New York, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Stephanie Yandun-Oyola"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Richard He"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy, New York University, New York, New York, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Anna Palumbo"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland",
        "Centre of Excellence in Music, Mind, Body and Brain, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland",
        "Department of Neurology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland"
      ],
      "name": "Aleksi J Sihvonen"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Population Health, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Yidan Shi"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Psychiatry, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Matteo Malgaroli"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Neurology, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA",
        "Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Heidi Schambra"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Music and Audio Research Laboratory (MARL), New York University, New York, New York, USA",
        "Integrated Design & Media, New York University, New York, New York, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Magdalena Fuentes"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York, USA",
        "Music and Audio Research Laboratory (MARL), New York University, New York, New York, USA",
        "Center for Language, Music, and Emotion (CLaME), New York University, New York, New York, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Pablo Ripolles"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Remote intentional music listening intervention to support mental health in individuals with chronic stroke: study protocol for a feasibility trial",
  "uid": "2cf07171-d7c1-5ce6-bd5a-11e454d0f91f"
}