Psychoneuroendocrine Research on Music and Health: An Overview

Music listening as a means of stress reduction in daily life

“…Music listening has been associated with a down-regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, as shown via reductions in the concentrations of cortisol in various experimental and clinical contexts (for an overview see: Kreutz et al, 2012), as well as with alterations of autonomic nervous system activity, with decreases in heart rate and blood pressure (for an overview see: Hodges, 2011). However, the pattern of results concerning biological effects of music is not consistent.…”

Adolescents’ musical relaxation: understanding related affective processing

“…Relaxation, tension reduction, and revival of new energy appear to be integral features of adolescents' health-beneficial use of music (Saarikallio, McFerran, & Gold, 2015) and daily music listening for relaxation purposes in general has been shown to contribute to the maintenance of psychophysiological health (Kreutz, Murcia & Bongard, 2012;Linnemann, Ditzen, Strahler, Doerr & Nater, 2015;Västfjäll, Juslin & Hartig, 2012). Music has been shown to be effective in alleviating stress response (Knight & Rickard, 2001; Thoma et al, 2013), particularly in the age group of adolescents (Pelletier, 2004).…”

Neurobiological Aspects of Neurologic Music Therapy

“…The so-called natural rewards such as musical experiences and other positive social interactions likewise activate dopaminergic neurons and are powerful aids to attention and learning. 16 There is ample evidence that the sensitivity to dopamine in the mesolimbic brain regions is largely genetically determined, resulting in the enormous variability in reward-dependent behavior. The genetic ''polymorphism'' of dopaminergic response explains the different motivational drives we observe in children with a similar social and educational background.…”