Cardiovascular and Emotional Effects of Music

Music represents a form of nonverbal language that does not encounter any limit across time, space, and cultures. Since antiquity the healing power of music on the human soul and body has been investigated and exploited by philosophers, scientists, magicians, and priestesses. Music can act both at a psychological level, evoking specific emotional states, and at a corporeal level, inducing physiological changes in different systems of the human body. The first part of the present chapter has been focused on the emotions evoked by music and provides an analysis of the modifications induced by the musical experience in the neural, endocrinological, and autonomic nervous systems. In the second section, we have attempted to explain why, even in modern times, music can be considered a real therapeutic tool for several neuropsychiatric disorders and cardiovascular diseases. A detailed summary of the most recent literature on the topic has been presented.