An introduction to the psychoneuroimmunology of music: History, future collaboration and a research agenda

Abstract

During the 1970s, research on music broadened from a predominantly historical and analytical study to one that explored music and psychology. The last two decades in particular have taken us a step further to explore music, psychology and neuroscience. This article explores how we could extend our research again through the exploration of the immunological impact of music. The influence of music on immune function has been reviewed in a recent article that has brought to light an intriguing body of evidence and highlighted the enormous promise of this field for further study. Such study has the potential to influence research in a number of related areas including music psychology, music and health, evolutionary musicology and music performance. However, there are a number of limitations to the current approach to such research; most significantly that studies are almost exclusively happening outside the field of music psychology. Consequently, drawing on theories of collaboration, a model is put forwards for how future studies should be conducted and a research agenda outlined.