Music

Last Updated: January 10, 2024

Music is a form of art that involves organized sound elements such as melody, harmony, and rhythm. Its therapeutic benefits largely lie in the emotional and psychological salience it carries for individual people, meaning that different types of music will affect people differently. Depending on the type of music and the characteristics of the listener, music can have a wide range of effects.

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1.

Music and Dopamine

Music has the ability to release dopamine. The effect of this seems to be via a calmodulin-dependent system.[2]

Dopamine release from the nucleus accumbens occurs during peak emotional arousal (the best part) and from caudate (another brain organ) during periods of anticipation for the peak emotional arousal.[3]

2.

Effects on Blood Pressure

Via a calcium/calmodulin-dependent dopamine-synthesizing system, dopamine can potentially reduce blood pressure.[4] Via this mechanism, music has been shown to reduce blood pressure (albeit in lab animals) and has more potency at higher frequencies (albeit still being calming music).[5] This effect may be only applicable to those with higher blood pressure in the first place (and hopefully not only rats).[6]

3.

Music and Pain Relief

Music has been found reduce the intensity of pain experienced.[7][8][9]

4.

Music and Exercise

Music administered during exercise has the ability to increase time to exhaustion during aerobic exercise while reducing blood pressure and heart rate, hypothesized to be via relaxation mechanisms.[10] Differences in adrenaline between the two groups were noted. These changes in adrenaline stop upon cessation of music, are dependent on the tempo of the music, and do not seem to be causative of the changes in performance during exercise to a significant degree.[11]

Listening to motivational music (music that encourages motion and activity) encourages enhanced blood lactate clearance possibly via unintentional additional movement.[12]</di|authors=Eliakim M, Bodner E, Eliakim A, Nemet D, Meckel Y|journal=J Strength Cond Res]

5.

Music and Addiction

Music appears to have the potential to augment already addictive behaviors via association. This result can be either positive or detrimental depending on context.[13][14]

References
1.^Ding T, Yan A, Liu KWhat is noise-induced hearing loss?Br J Hosp Med (Lond).(2019-Sep-02)
3.^Salimpoor VN, Benovoy M, Larcher K, Dagher A, Zatorre RJAnatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation and experience of peak emotion to musicNat Neurosci.(2011 Feb)
7.^Nilsson S, Kokinsky E, Nilsson U, Sidenvall B, Enskär KSchool-aged children's experiences of postoperative music medicine on pain, distress, and anxietyPaediatr Anaesth.(2009 Dec)
8.^Bradshaw DH, Donaldson GW, Jacobson RC, Nakamura Y, Chapman CRIndividual differences in the effects of music engagement on responses to painful stimulationJ Pain.(2011 Dec)
9.^Cepeda MS, Carr DB, Lau J, Alvarez HMusic for pain reliefCochrane Database Syst Rev.(2006 Apr 19)
11.^Yamamoto T, Ohkuwa T, Itoh H, Kitoh M, Terasawa J, Tsuda T, Kitagawa S, Sato YEffects of pre-exercise listening to slow and fast rhythm music on supramaximal cycle performance and selected metabolic variablesArch Physiol Biochem.(2003 Jul)
13.^Polston JE, Rubbinaccio HY, Morra JT, Sell EM, Glick SDMusic and methamphetamine: conditioned cue-induced increases in locomotor activity and dopamine release in ratsPharmacol Biochem Behav.(2011 Mar)