ReviewPeerJ2026
Music and animal welfare: from behavioral and physiological effects to potential applications in animal husbandry.
Review in PeerJ, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Music, as a complex auditory stimulus, has become a significant topic of interdisciplinary research due to its diverse impacts and underlying mechanisms. Numerous studies demonstrate that music not only profoundly affects human physiological and psychological well-being, but also has important effects on animal behavior and physiology. This review synthesizes previous research and explores the scientific foundations of interactions between music and animals across five key dimensions. Given the heterogeneity of species and interventions, findings were synthesized narratively. First, it explores the neurological basis of animal music perception from a neurobiological perspective, including the evolutionary traits of auditory systems, interspecies differences in music perception, and the neural pathways through which musical stimuli are transmitted within animal nervous systems. Second, using comparative studies across multiple species, it uncovers the distinct ways in which various animals perceive musical elements-such as tempo, rhythm, and pitch-and the behavioral responses they exhibit. Some species even demonstrate rudimentary musical creativity. Third, the review analyzes the positive effects of music on animal neural and endocrine functions, immune function, and welfare, particularly its role in reducing stress responses, improving emotional states, and enhancing quality of life. Finally, this review summarizes recent advances in studies using fish to investigate the effects of music on animals, highlights the broad potential of fish as experimental models in this research field, and provides representative examples illustrating how such findings may contribute to future improvements in animal welfare and the efficiency of aquaculture practices. Moreover, research on music perception in fish may provide indispensable insights into the evolutionary origins and biological foundations of musical perception in vertebrates.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.