Introduction
Last Saturday night, I returned to one of the most meaningful places for me: the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Attending a concert at the Sala Nezahualcóyotl felt like coming home. This time, however, I wasn’t alone. An invitation from two friends turned out to be a central part of the experience.
The Power of Shared Musical Experiences
Sharing music with others enriches the aesthetic experience. Exchanging glances during an emotionally charged moment, sharing silent reactions and post-concert comments deepens the experience. We now know that the human brain isn’t designed for isolated emotional experiences. Shared aesthetic experiences synchronize emotions, activate empathy circuits, and strengthen the sense of belonging. In an increasingly fragmented social context, this emotional synchronization is almost therapeutic.
A Neuroemotional Narrative in Three Acts
The UNAM Philharmonic Orchestra (OFUNAM) presented a program that could be read as a neuroemotional narrative in three acts: three pieces, three mental states, and three ways of inhabiting the human brain.
Act I: Trauma, Resilience, and Memory
The concert opened with Florence Price’s Ethiopia’s Shadow in America (1932). Price, a composer who faced racial and gender discrimination, experienced depression, economic hardship, and constant struggle for recognition in a deeply hostile environment. Her music embodies what we might now describe as collective trauma and resilience. From a neuroscientific perspective, such works activate networks linked to emotional memory and pain processing—including structures like the amygdala and hippocampus—reminding us that the brain not only stores individual memories but also cultural shared traces.
Act II: The Flow State and Emotional Integration
Franz Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat major (1855) was performed during the International Piano Festival. Pianist Daniela Liebman’s performance was a clear example of extreme body-emotion-mind integration. Liszt, a romantic virtuoso, experienced intense emotional exaltation, tumultuous love affairs, and near-mystical retreat periods. Biographers describe traits that could be associated with high emotional sensitivity and creative states of heightened focus, characteristic of what we now call neurodivergent genius.
Neuroscientifically, Lispt represents the brain in ‘flow’: exceptional integration between motor, auditory cortex, and emotional circuits. Conscious self-criticism decreases, while neuronal efficiency increases. The result is a fully expressive nervous system through an instrument, as we witnessed on stage.
Act III: Love, Obsession, and Altered States of Consciousness
The second part of the concert was dedicated to Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique (1830), an autobiographical work inspired by his obsessive love for actress Harriet Smithson. Berlioz experienced intense anxiety, obsessive thoughts, and extreme emotional states. His symphony can be read today as an early musical representation of what we now understand as ruminative thinking, obsession, and altered states of consciousness. Neurobiologically, these states involve overactivation of the limbic system and difficulty modulating emotional responses from the prefrontal cortex.
Key Questions and Answers
- Question: Does a ‘virtuous’ brain exist?
- Question: What happens in the brain of a music listener, a music lover?
Answer: Researchers like Isabelle Peretz and Robert Zatorre have dedicated decades to studying the relationship between music and the brain. Their work shows that professional musicians develop greater brain plasticity, more efficient sensorimotor integration, and sometimes abilities like absolute pitch. Years of intense training profoundly transform the organization and efficiency of these circuits.
Answer: Clinical research shows that musical experience activates pleasure, memory, emotional regulation, and social connection circuits. This is why music is now used as a therapeutic tool in depression, anxiety, trauma, and dementia. Music modulates the autonomic nervous system, reduces stress response, and promotes emotional coherence.
Historical and Neuroscientific Perspective
Long before concert halls, our ancestors lived immersed in soundscapes: wind, birds, water, and fire. Later, they created instruments to accompany rituals, ceremonies, and rites of passage. Music has always been a communal life axis and a way to organize shared human experiences.
Neurodivergent Musical Experiences
For some, this sensory experience is even more intense. Synesthesia describes brains capable of spontaneous sensory integration, associating sounds with colors, perceiving music kinesthetically or olfactorily. It’s a variation in human perception that neuroscience has extensively studied to understand the expansion of sensory experience.
Music in Integrative Psychiatry
In integrative psychiatry, music holds a therapeutic place. Prescribing sounds, rhythms, or melodies that favor calm, regulation, or meaning directly affects the nervous system and is part of increasingly well-documented clinical interventions.
Personal Reflection
Leaving the concert, accompanied by friends, I felt distinctly different—more ordered and open. I thought perhaps we don’t need to fully understand music; our brains and bodies already know what to do with it.
Music doesn’t just enter through the ears; it enters the nervous system. When shared among friends and loved ones, it reaches deeper and can heal even more.
I’d love to hear your questions or related experiences. Let’s keep the conversation going; you can reach me at [email protected] or follow me on Instagram @dra.carmenamezcua.
