Classical Music Can ‘Sync’ the Depressed Brain

Listening to classical orchestral music synchronizes the brain’s auditory cortex with its ’rewards circuit,' a promising finding for people with depression.

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You hear it while you’re getting a massage, while you’re on hold with a billing department, and while your car is being repaired. Classical music is often used to calm us, and research is showing that music may have the potential to heal us. Now, scientists in China have delved into the brain to discover the mechanism by which musical sound waves affect our minds and our moods.

Previous work by investigators around the world shows that music evokes emotions in the brain. Researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University recently investigated how listening to music—specifically, Western classical music—can affect a circuit within the brain and lead to lessened depression. Their findings hold promise—but not yet a cure—for those living with depression.

“Classical music can have a soothing effect on the mind and body, which is beneficial for mood regulation,” senior author Dr. Bomin Sun, director and professor of the Center for Functional Neurosurgery at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, told The Epoch Times. “Studies have shown that listening to classical music can reduce anxiety, improve sleep quality, and lower stress levels, all of which are relevant to managing depression.”

Sun and his colleagues set out to investigate the specific neural mechanisms through which classical music exerts its antidepressant effects, he said.

In a study published on Aug. 9 in the journal Cell Reports, the researchers investigated classical music’s effects on 13 people with intractable depression who had had electrodes previously placed in their brains for the purpose of deep-brain stimulation.

The electrodes were placed in a circuit connecting two areas in the forebrain—the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) and the nucleus accumbens (NAc), according to the university. The researchers identified “BNST-NAc oscillatory coupling”—a syncing of the auditory cortex and the brain’s “rewards circuit”—as the phenomenon responsible for an antidepressive effect.

Music lessened the patients’ depression “by synchronizing the neural oscillations between the auditory cortex, which is responsible for processing of sensory information, and the rewards circuit, which is responsible for processing emotional information,” the university reported in a statement.

The more the patients enjoyed the music they listened to, the more it lifted their mood.

“The degree to which subjective enjoyment of the music influenced the antidepressant effects was more pronounced than we initially expected,” Sun told The Epoch Times.

Better Oscillatory Coupling, Better Mood

The patients were divided into two groups: one composed of 13 people who were unfamiliar with classical music (called the UF group) and one composed of 10 people who were more familiar with it (the FA group).

The patients listened to Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, “representing sadness,” and the third movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, “representing joy and excitement,” according to the researchers. While the 13 UF patients listened, the researchers simultaneously recorded their electroencephalogram signals and the intracranial recordings from the BNST and NAc regions of their brains.

The patients’ depression was assessed before and after listening to the music using visual analog scales for depression, anxiety, and enjoyment.

When the researchers tested the patients in the FA group, who had been given music segments to listen to three times daily over 14 days, they showed better oscillatory coupling and improved depression symptoms compared with those in the UF group.

However, when the researchers added theta frequency noise (3.5 Hertz to 7.5 Hertz) to music to enhance BNST-NAc oscillatory coupling, the patients in the UF group reported higher music enjoyment. Theta frequency tones resonate with brain wave frequencies during sleep and deep relaxation.

Interestingly, the “mood” of the musical segments the patients listened to (whether sad or joyful) had no effect on depression, anxiety, or enjoyment, suggesting the therapeutic effect of music “may be independent of the emotional effect,” the researchers wrote.

Why Classical Music?

The researchers chose Western classical music because the subjects had little familiarity with it and were less likely to have previously associated memories and emotions with it, they said.

“Classical music is well-documented and studied, offering a rich array of compositions with varying emotional tones, rhythms, and structures that can be carefully selected to examine specific neural responses,” Sun told The Epoch Times. He noted that Asian subjects are often unfamiliar with classical music, making it a more easily controlled variable in that population.

Classical music has seen a surge in popularity around the globe in recent years, and younger people in particular are discovering they enjoy it. It “resonates” with us—perhaps thanks to the “oscillatory coupling” observed in the new study.

Sun remarked in the university statement that he and his colleagues are optimistic that their findings will prove to be practical and easy to use for people with depression.

“Ultimately, we hope to translate our research findings into clinical practice, developing convenient and effective music therapy tools and applications,” he said.

Music that aligns with a person’s preferences is most likely to be beneficial, Sun told The Epoch Times.

“People with depression may benefit from listening to music that they enjoy and find soothing, which could include classical music or other genres,” he said.

“Regularly listening to music that resonates with them could help improve mood and reduce depressive symptoms.”

However, he noted that music therapy should be considered a complementary treatment to other forms of therapy and medication to treat depression.