It is widely recognised that classical music can influence a person’s mood, so a team of Chinese scientists has carried out a study in which they used brain wave measurements and neuroimaging techniques to demonstrate how Western classical music has a positive impact on the brain. Their aim is to find more effective ways of using music to activate the brain in people who otherwise do not respond, such as patients with treatment-resistant depression. The results have been published in Cell Reports.
“Our research integrates the fields of neuroscience, psychiatry and neurosurgery, providing a foundation for any research targeting the interaction between music and emotion,” said senior author Bomin Sun, director and professor of the Center for Functional Neurosurgery at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. “Ultimately, we hope to translate our research findings into clinical practice, developing convenient and effective music therapy tools and applications.”
The study focused on 13 patients with treatment-resistant depression who already had electrodes implanted in their brains for the purpose of deep brain stimulation. These implants are placed in a circuit that connects two areas of the forebrain: the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) and the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Using these implants, the researchers discovered that music generates its antidepressant effects by synchronizing neural oscillations between the auditory cortex, which is responsible for processing sensory information, and the reward circuit, which is responsible for processing emotional information.
“The BNST-NAc circuit, sometimes referred to as part of the ‘extended amygdala,’ underscores the close relationship between this circuit and the amygdala, a central structure in processing emotional information,” says Sun. “This study reveals that music induces a triple temporal locking of neural oscillations in the cortical-BNST-NAc circuit through auditory synchronization.”
Personalized music therapy plans to combat depression
Patients in the study were assigned to two groups: low music appreciation or high music appreciation. Those in the high music appreciation group demonstrated more significant neural synchronization and better antidepressant effects, while those in the low music appreciation group showed worse outcomes. By grouping the patients, the researchers were able to study the antidepressant mechanisms of music more precisely and propose personalized music therapy plans that would improve treatment outcomes.
For example, when theta-frequency noise was inserted into music to enhance BNST-NAc oscillatory coupling, those in the low music appreciation group reported greater enjoyment of music. Several pieces of Western classical music were used in the study. This type of music was chosen because most participants were unfamiliar with it and the researchers wanted to avoid any interference that might arise from subjective familiarity.
“We plan to develop a series of digital health products based on music therapy, such as smartphone apps and wearable devices.”
“We concluded that musical choices during the formal listening process were individualized and unrelated to the emotional background of the music,” Sun says. The team’s future research will focus on several areas. For one, they aim to study how the interaction between music and deep brain structures plays a role in depressive disorders. They will also introduce other forms of sensory stimuli, including visual images, to investigate the potential combined therapeutic effects of multisensory stimulation on depression.
“Through collaboration with physicians, music therapists, computer scientists and engineers, we plan to develop a series of digital health products based on music therapy, such as smartphone apps and wearable devices,” Sun said. “These products will integrate personalized music recommendations, real-time emotional monitoring and feedback, and multi-sensory VR experiences to provide convenient and effective self-help tools for managing emotions and improving symptoms in daily life.”
Rafael Román Caballero, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie researcher at the McMaster Institute for Music & the Mind at McMaster University (Canada) and the Mind, Brain and Behaviour Research Centre at the University of Granada, who was not involved in the study, says that “the data from this new research show us that the relationship between music and pleasure is so strong that it helps alleviate depression. And this relationship could have an identifiable, measurable pattern of electrical activity in the brain,” he told SMC Spain. He concludes that: “What the future holds for us is understanding whether this type of activity pattern can be induced.”
