Research Question and Supporting Data for MBI Hypothesis Testing

MBI research should be built on evidence from prior studies, extant literature, and/or clinical practice. Music and health researchers can benefit from the experience of researchers in behavioral intervention development, which highlights the importance of systematic reviews and the need to use basic research to inform selection of theoretical models while maintaining clinical equipoise.[49] Further, the initial literature review should also include a focus on components of the intervention itself—for MBIs, this focus would include musical elements, such as frequency, tempo, melody, and playback volume, as well as non-musical intervention components (e.g., imagery which accompanies the music) which are important to engage hypothesized mechanisms or produce the desired outcomes.