A Review of the Impacts of Music and Implications for Music Medicine

Abstract

Music operates as a stimulus that arouses people’s emotions and induces the release of neurotransmitters and hormones in the brain such as serotonin and dopamine. As such, music has many physiological effects including increased heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory rate as well as impacts on mood. It also activates many networks in the brain, such as auditory neural pathways that process music and sensory circuits. Research has shown that involvement in musical activities have a noticeable impact on the intellectual, social, and personal development of children, catalyzing cortical reorganization and permanently altering how the brain processes information. Engagement in music learning and training, in particular, has been found to impact cognitive function and development. Though research has been conducted on these impacts, there has been little research comparing the impacts of listening to music on young adult musicians and non-musicians. Future research should investigate what these differences are to help inform the use of music medicine on patients of varying degrees of past and present engagement in music training and play.