This new study published in the medical journal Journal of Public Health reveals that going to a concert reduces stress. But this is not the first time that the benefits of music have been demonstrated. According to researchers at Northwestern University (United States), playing music during childhood helps slow cognitive decline in adulthood. A finnish study asserted that “Having the fetus listen to music helps it develop its brain and memory and that prenatal sensitization of the fetus to music stimulates its brain development and long-lasting memory. And the University of London’s Institute of Education published a study which found that “classical music has a positive influence on children’s concentration, self-discipline and even social behaviour.”
Researchers from the Royal College of Music, and the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College of London (UK) conducted a study with 117 adults who were going to attend a concert by Eric Whitacre, an American composer of orchestral music .
They analyzed saliva samples just before the concert and then 60 minutes after the start to understand whether listening to live classical music altered levels of hormones associated with stress and brain activation. immune system.
Live or recorded, music is excellent for your health
The conclusions of these analyzes reveal that attending a concert reduces the level of stress.
“After 60 minutes, we saw a decrease in glucocorticoid levels, with a significant decrease in cortisol, cortisone and the cortisol/cortisone ratio”, write the authors, which indicates “a decrease in biological stress”, explains Daisy Fancourt . “We also noted a change in the level of progesterone, a sex hormone also involved in the reaction to stress “.
For this study, the researchers observed no differences associated with age, musical experience or knowledge of music. “There is a ‘universal response’ among listeners to attending a music concert,” they say.
“These results, write the authors, are in line with those of 22 previous studies which showed that listening to music in a controlled setting (with recorded music), in a laboratory or in a hospital can reduce levels of cortisol. »
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