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I'm interested in how listening to different types of music (such as jazz, classical, etc.) can help some people calm down.

More specifically, how does the brain form a link between music heard and processed to the stress system? Is it some cortical association area or a direct circuit?

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This may be happening due to beat entrainment. Different music genres have different beat and rhythm patterns. The ones that are calming will generally have a lower beat and rhythm frequencies. The lower beat and rhythm frequencies are similar to the frequency of heartbeat and breathing when a person is feeling calm and/or relaxed. Through the process of entrainment, the person's breathing and heartbeat may synchronize with the music, thus calming the person. The mechanism could be working by counter-acting the effects of shallow breathing.

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