Although it’s widely believed that music has a relaxing effect on the body, can that effect be measured? Research published in the Medical Science Monitor suggests it can.

In a study conducted at the Long Island Conservatory, scientists investigated whether the tell-tale signs of relaxation and calm that occur in blood and brain chemistry could be seen in a group listening to music compared with a control group that didn’t listen to music. It was found that the music-listeners exhibited chemical changes that seem to verify everyday reports of the physiological, stress-reducing effects of music, such as lower blood pressure.

Specifically, researchers found that listening to music promotes a drop in glycoproteins and in plasma morphine levels, both associated with a widening of blood vessels, and in the release of natural opiates. These responses lead to a relaxing effect throughout the body via the nervous system.

It’s commonplace for a 9-year-old to break into a big smile while drumming. But when that child is autistic, the smile is even more rewarding. In East Brunswick, New Jersey, music therapists at the Hoboken School of Music are seeing a lot of smiles recently from children with chronic conditions such autism and Down Syndrome.

“Music is the most basic way to reach disabled children,” Robbins asserts. “It’s something that transcends all human emotion and feeling.” With Robbins children don’t simply listen to music; they are encouraged to use musical instruments to find their own voice. Whether it’s drums, a piano, or whatever the children feel like playing, they take an active role in creating music with a therapist. No music training is required.

That’s because Clive Robbins, co-founder of the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Center, whose New York University branch is partnering with the music school, is using creative music therapy with these patients. His approach, he says, is based upon the belief that there is inborn musicality residing in everyone, which can be activated for personal growth and development.

“It’s exciting because each child is different, so you never know where you are going or where you will end up,” Robbins explains. Each session is videotaped and reviewed by a therapist, who looks at the child’s responses. Does she start singing? Is the child now playing the drum with his left hand, when he didn’t before? Is she smiling? Robbins says the therapy works in part because the children are allowed to express anger, sadness, disappointment, happiness, and excitement without fear of rejection.

Biologists have been puzzled by the power music has over our emotions. There is no question about the joy music can bring to our lives; however, given the fact that music is not necessary for survival, scientists as far back as Darwin have wondered why evolution has allowed music appreciation to be so deeply wired into our bodies.

There are plenty of theories. Some studies have analyzed PET scans and discovered that music activates the same areas of the brain that are stimulated by sex or food. The fact that music manages to tickle the brain may just be the result of an evolutionary accident. It’s doubtful that anyone will be complaining if that is the case.

Monkeys may have more in common with humans than scientists previously thought. Classic childhood songs such as “Happy Birthday” and “Old McDonald” can become just as ingrained in a monkey’s brain as in an infant’s.

In one study, two adult rhesus monkeys listened to various sounds, such as an owl hooting or a horn blowing. They were then conditioned to report whether the sound they were presented with matched another sound heard a second later.

Following the success of that study, researchers asked if the musical monkeys were able to identify whether 12 different childhood songs were played on a piano, guitar, or other instrument. It turns out that they could even recognize the song if the melody was slightly altered. No one is yet sure just why the ability to perceive melodies shows up in primates or what use, if any, this innate musicality may have.

Music can change your life—it can also change your brain. Musicians who spend hours practicing develop motor skills that nonmusicians do not have. Violinists, for instance, develop special hand motor skills that show up as differences in their brain structure.

A group of scientists from the University of Chicago, led by Steven Small, used MRI scans to study whether patterns of brain activity generated when people move their fingers differ between violinists and nonviolinists. Accomplished amateur violinists and people with no musical training participated in the study. Their brain activity was measured while they performed a task that mimicked fingering a violin fret board. It was found that movement of fingers in the left hand was predicted by activity in the musicians’ motor brain region, and not in the nonmusicians.

Conversely, movement of fingers in the right hand led to predictable brain activity only in nonmusicians. Researchers surmise that extensive practice results in reorganized patterns of brain activity associated with moving the fretting fingers. There is not as much reorganization of the violinists’ right hands because bowing requires less intricate movements.

It is said that learning a foreign language is easier if a person begins to do it at a young age. The same idea is true of music. Researchers at Cornell University have discovered that infants have the ability to recognize unfamiliar musical sounds much more easily than adults.

In order to see whether or not an infant could detect a difference in sound, researches monitored babies as they watched a cartoon. The cartoon was always played with two versions of a song. The theory was that if an infant showed more of an interest in one song over the other, the infant had detected a difference in the two.

Further research showed that six-month-old children could detect musical variations in Balkan folkdances more easily than US adults and could detect the changes on the same level as adult Macedonians and Bulgarians. Since humans become so familiar and efficient with their own language, it becomes hard to recognize subtle differences in other languages and foreign music. Similarly, since infants do not yet posses a perceptual bias, they respond to music both familiar and foreign.

Parents in school districts hit by music education cuts now have a way to make their voices heard and find support if they want to take action. The Music Education Coalition—an organization which includes NAMM, the International Music Products Association; MENC, the National Association for Music Education; and now the National PTA—is helping individuals and parents’ groups become proactive with its SupportMusic.com campaign.

Affiliation with the PTA adds the voices of 6 million parents to the drive to strengthen school music programs. The Indiana PTA recently joined forces with the Music Education Coalition to preserve music education in all Indiana schools. In Long Island, New York, Kim Lowenborg-Coyne used SupportMusic.com’s resources and organized to stop a $3 million music education budget cut at her Long Island school.

Since its launch in 2003, SupportMusic.com has grown to become the largest online national initiative ever in support of school music programs. The site offers resources that empower parents and music advocates to act locally and successfully.

Music has been employed throughout time to convey human emotion and experience, to soothe and stimulate, and to speak directly to hearts and souls. Now music therapist Deborah Salmon of Montreal, Canada, is taking these qualities and applying them with remarkable success in the field of palliative care at McGill University Health Center. Music therapy, says Salmon, benefits people at the end of life by promoting relaxation, pain control, and a sense of well-being, as well as by acknowledging and celebrating life, stimulating meaningful memories, bringing loved ones together, and supporting emotional and spiritual expression.

Patients in Salmon’s care welcome opportunities to make music through improvising on simple instruments, such as percussion. These improvisations, explains Salmon, give the pleasure of a creative activity and a sometimes-crucial nonverbal means of expression. Salmon says the music, instruments, and therapists all serve to facilitate the safe release of emotion that may be difficult to verbalize. Salmon describes one 11-year-old boy, whose mother was close to death and who came to her office and played the rhythm instruments with great, noisy energy. After a while, his music became quieter and he began to create a rap song about a sad monkey whose parent had gone away. This is an example, Salmon observes, of complex anger and sadness being expressed through creative music making. The boy later recorded the song to share with his father.