Studies on relationships between music, visual imagery or therapeutic techniques, like mindfulness and emotions have been undertaken with varying success in predominantly adult populations. Their role in the child and adolescent population remains unclear.

We undertook a systematic literature review to assess current evidence in the use of music, guided imagery with/without therapeutic techniques for emotional processing in adults, children and adolescents.

We identified 87 relevant papers (JSTOR, OVID Medline, Cochrane, PubMed, Science Direct, Taylor & Francis and Wiley). We excluded non-English papers and qualitative analyses. Nine studies used quantitative techniques (Neuroimaging) for assessing emotional change using musical and non-musical stimuli (n = 77). Of these, four studies used fMRI and two used PET scans.

fMRI demonstrates a significant relation between amygdalar activation and emotional response to visual imagery (P < 0.05, n = 45). Early information using PET scanning shows a significant association between activation of different parts of brain with varied visual imagery (one study, n = 5) and varied music (one study, n = 10). There is similarity in the activation of specific cortical areas using musical and non-musical stimuli. Two separate studies of patients with damaged amygdala due to disease (n = 6) showed significant impairment of emotional processing and response.

There is early encouraging data providing evidence of possible relationships between music and visual imagery in emotional processing. Further studies are needed to examine these in detail, especially in children/adolescents. Music with visual imagery may be a useful adjunct in the self-guided processing of milder emotional disorders with components of anxiety, depression, adjustment and emotional dysregulation.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.