Effect of music on the sectretion of salivary cortisol after the removal of short-term stressful task

Our experience tells us the power of music on human body and mind. Moreover a series of psycho-physiological studies has revealed the positive effects of music on human autonomous nervous system such as alleviating the symptom of the hypertension. However little has been known about the effects of music on human endocrine system, which plays the dominant role for forming our life. In this study, the effect of music on the secretion of the salivary cortisol, a major glucocorticoid hormone, was investigated in a laboratory experiment. In a stream of stress psycho-physiological study, cortisol is considered as a feasible stress biomarker. In the experiment ten healthy male students were exposed to music, noise, and silence condition followed by a simple but stressful calculation task. As a result, the significant difference in the cortisol responses among the condition was observed; the salivary cortisol was decreased after the music treatment. This result plausibly demonstrated the effects of music on human hormonal secretion and might imply the power of music.