A man puts on his headphones before stepping onto a treadmill. As an upbeat song starts playing, he picks up speed. A student listens to soft instrumental music while studying. An elderly woman smiles as an old song reminds her of her younger days.
These are everyday moments. But scientists say they reveal that music does far more than entertain us. Listening to music activates multiple brain networks at the same time, influencing how we move, think, remember and feel.
Neurologists often describe music as one of the few experiences capable of engaging almost the entire brain at once. Unlike most everyday activities, listening to music simultaneously recruits regions involved in hearing, movement, memory, emotion, attention and reward. Decades of neuroscience research have helped explain why.
One of the most comprehensive reviews, Music in the Brain, published in 2022 by Peter Vuust and colleagues, suggests the brain is constantly trying to predict what comes next in a song. It anticipates the next beat, note or melody. When those expectations are met, or pleasantly violated, we experience enjoyment.
The researchers argue that music is not confined to the brain's hearing centres. Instead, it recruits networks responsible for movement, emotion, memory and reward, while learning music reshapes both brain structure and function. This overturned the long-held belief that music was processed mainly in the auditory cortex.
That broader view also explains why rhythm is so difficult to resist. Even while we are sitting still, the brain's motor system responds to music, preparing the body for movement. It is why people instinctively tap their feet, clap along or nod their heads to the beat. The man on the treadmill is simply responding to this connection between hearing and movement. Scientists are now exploring how rhythmic cues can help people recovering from stroke and those living with neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease regain movement and coordination.
Music's influence extends well beyond movement. A wedding song can instantly transport someone back to their special day. A devotional hymn can bring comfort. A childhood melody can unlock memories that seemed forgotten.
Brain scans show that music activates regions linked to emotion, memory and reward, including the amygdala, hippocampus and nucleus accumbens. These areas help us process emotions, store memories and experience pleasure. They also explain why the same song can make one person smile, another cry and someone else relive a moment from years ago. Pleasant music stimulates the brain's reward circuitry, releasing dopamine, the neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and motivation.
The brain also does not respond to every kind of music in the same way. Different styles engage the same broad networks but produce different effects depending on their rhythm, tempo, complexity and, above all, the listener's familiarity and preference.
Slow instrumental or classical music often lowers heart rate and blood pressure, helping the body recover from stress. Upbeat pop and electronic music can increase alertness and make exercise feel easier by synchronising movement with rhythm. Jazz, with its unpredictable patterns, appears to challenge attention and creativity, while songs with lyrics can interfere with reading and other language-based tasks because they compete for the brain's verbal processing centres. Heavy metal, despite its aggressive sound, has even been shown to help some people regulate anger and reduce stress rather than intensify it.
However, context matters as much as the music itself. A song that relaxes one person may leave another unmoved, while a familiar tune can trigger emotions and memories far more powerfully than an unfamiliar one.
Scientists are now exploring how music's ability to activate multiple brain systems simultaneously could improve learning, rehabilitation and the treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Learning an instrument also strengthens neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to reorganise itself by forming new neural connections throughout life.
Not everyone experiences music in the same way. Around three to five per cent of people have musical anhedonia, a condition in which music brings little or no pleasure because the brain's hearing and reward systems communicate less effectively.
For most people, however, every favourite song is far more than a collection of notes. It is an experience that can move the body, stir emotions, unlock memories and connect different parts of the brain in ways few other everyday activities can.