Music: When Sound Becomes Feeling and Movement

"In one study, she and her team compared people's reactions to emotional music (specifically, Western classical music) with their reactions to emotional environmental sounds, such as a baby crying. They found that music activates regions of the brain related to movement and bodily sensations, 1 while environmental sounds mainly activate brain areas linked to language. The researchers concluded that we interpret emotional environmental sounds by identifying their source, but we respond to emotional music by tuning into the feelings and movements"

"She began college as a piano and flute performance major. After being exposed to psychology courses, she became fascinated by how music and the mind interact. The potential to meld music and psychology took hold of her imagination. She switched her major and earned a BA in Psychology. Because the United States had no formal degree in the psychology of music at that time, she spent a year in England to earn a master's degree in that field."

Liking music engages whole-body processes that include movement-related and bodily-sensation brain regions, not only cognitive circuits. Emotional music activates motor and interoceptive areas, whereas emotional environmental sounds primarily activate language-related brain regions and are understood by source identification. Illnesses such as depression reduce emotional responsiveness to music. Musical training and interdisciplinary study bridge performance and psychological approaches to music. Greater consistency and standardization of musical interventions can advance therapeutic research and clinical application in music therapy. Comparing musical and environmental sound responses reveals distinct neural and bodily pathways for emotion.

Read at Psychology Today