Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore have found that when people listen to their favorites tunes, their blood vessels dilate and blood flow increases. The response is reportedly similar to the body’s reaction to laughter.

On the flip side, when people listen to music that stresses them out, blood vessels narrow and blood flow is reduced, according to the study.

“We had previously demonstrated that positive emotions, such as laughter, were good for vascular health. So, a logical question was whether other emotions, such as those evoked by music, have a similar effect,” said study head Michael Miller, director of preventive cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center. “We knew that individual people would react differently to different types of music, so in this study, we enabled participants to select music based upon their likes and dislikes.”

The study tested 10 healthy, non-smoking men and women.

Baselines were established for the volunteers before each phase of the test, when they listened to their favorite music and the music that made them anxious.

Compared to the baseline, blood vessel diameter increased 26 percent after listening to joyful music in comparison to the anxiety-inducing music, which narrowed blood vessels by six percent.

“We don’t understand why somebody may be drawn to certain classical music, for example,” Miller said. “There are no words in that, and yet the rhythm, the melody and harmony, may all play a role in the emotional and cardiovascular response.”