Distinctive Voices—From Playlist to Prescription: The Emerging Science of Music and Health

Music is one of the most universal human behaviors—people across cultures spend hours each day listening to music to regulate mood, reduce stress, improve sleep, and cope with illness. But how and why does music have these effects on the brain and body? In this talk, Dr. Sean Young will present emerging scientific evidence on how music influences mental and physical health, drawing on studies ranging from behavioral experiments to direct recordings of brain activity. He will share findings from randomized studies on mindful listening to jazz and research showing how expectations about music genres—such as reggae—can shape emotional and pain responses. He will also present preliminary work using intracranial EEG (iEEG) to examine how the brain perceives and processes music in patients with epilepsy, providing new insights into how musical experiences are represented in the brain and linked to mood. Together, these studies highlight how specific elements of music can be harnessed to design more effective, personalized interventions for mental health and clinical care. Dr. Young will conclude by discussing efforts to advance this emerging field, including the development of interdisciplinary collaborations that bring together researchers, clinicians, musicians, and patients through initiatives such as the HARMONICS 2026 conference at UC Irvine.

Featured Speaker:

Dr. Sean Young

Professor of Emergency Medicine and Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine

Sean Young, PhD is a Professor of Emergency Medicine and Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, and Executive Director of the University of California Institute for Prediction Technology, where he leads research on digital health, artificial intelligence, and behavior change. His research includes the use of social media, mobile data, and real-time behavioral signals to predict health outcomes and design interventions, with work spanning mental health, substance use, and chronic disease. Based on his ethnomusicology degree and early work in the music industry, his research also explores how music and sound can influence psychological and physiological processes, including studies on mindful listening, expectation effects in music, and the neural representation of music in the brain. He has served on committees for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, including as a board member of the National Academies’ Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice.