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Crucially, it has been unclear whether music provides unique neurobiological benefits or simply acts as a general, relaxing auditory stimulus. Here, we demonstrate that music selectively facilitates multisystem recovery from acute stress\u2014enhancing positive mood (PM) and accelerating autonomic stabilization (electrodermal activity and heart rate)\u2014significantly outperforming an active natural sound control. Using functional MRI and dynamic causal modeling, we revealed the network architecture underlying this advantage. Compared to natural sounds, music drives a distinct reorganization of stress-regulation networks, establishing a directional, causal pathway from the auditory cortex to the insula and thalamus. On a faster timescale, dynamic functional connectivity reveals that this network reconfiguration is actively governed by musical structure: moment-to-moment fluctuations in perceived musical tension track transient shifts from stress-network engagement to neural downregulation. Furthermore, these music-specific connectivity changes are directly associated with improvements in PM. Together, these findings identify a temporally evolving mechanism by which the brain\u2019s processing of structured musical sequences acts as a dynamic regulatory driver, reconfiguring neural architectures to restore psychological and physiological homeostasis.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2611584123","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,8]],"date-time":"2026-09-08T17:47:37Z","timestamp":1788889657000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.cm10313","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["The structural dynamics of music drive acute stress recovery through functional reorganization of stress-regulation networks"],"prefix":"10.1073","volume":"123","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-6012-2368","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Siqi","family":"You","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03j7v5j15","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Science and Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences","place":["Beijing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6518-2018","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lei","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/001fxzj49","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Academy for Research and Education","place":["Toronto, Canada"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5121-8665","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Guowei","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03j7v5j15","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Science and Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences","place":["Beijing, China"]},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/05qbk4x57","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences","place":["Beijing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4512-5221","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yi","family":"Du","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03j7v5j15","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Science and Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences","place":["Beijing, China"]},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/05qbk4x57","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences","place":["Beijing, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"341","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_4_1_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1037\/amp0000904"},{"key":"e_1_3_4_2_2","volume-title":"Stress, Appraisal and Coping","author":"Lazarus R. 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