Music and Physiological Communication: From Intrinsic Entrainment to Mirror Neurons

Scholars have long debated why and how music emerged. One promising answer is that music can function as a powerful form of physiological communication, enabling individuals to encode and convey emotional and bodily states through rhythmic and tonal structures. Building on insights that highlight music’s capacity to unify social groups, mark cultural identities, and elicit embodied participation, this paper proposes “intrinsic entrainment” as a novel concept: the coupling of one’s motor outputs to one’s own autonomic rhythms (e.g., heart rate), modulated by affect. Intrinsic entrainment makes a performer’s autonomic state audible; listeners can then simulate the action, and, via mirror-neuron supported sensorimotor coupling, adjust their own physiology accordingly. This view situates the physiological aspects of musical sound, especially the entrainment of rhythmic impulses to internal parameters, at the core of music’s emotion-conveying power. Ultimately, the notion of music as a tool for physiological communication aligns with multiple evolutionary and ethnomusicological perspectives that underscore music’s adaptability for social bonding, credible signaling, ritual efficacy, and everyday emotional regulation.