Have you ever found yourself sitting around your house on a lazy Saturday afternoon and thought, “I wonder what I could do with my positron emission tomography scanner and my background in psychophysiology?”
Yeah, me neither — my PET scanner is in the shop, so the point is moot, at any rate — but several researchers at McGill University in Montreal decided to take a crack at it.
The results of their study, which was published in Nature Neuroscience earlier this month, found a link between the “chills” people experience when listening to music and the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with the sensation of pleasure.
The scientists conducted the study using PET and MRI scans and measuring subjects’ body temperature, heart rate and respiration.
Their test group consisted of 10 people, five male and five female, culled from 217 responders to an advertisement for people who reported consistently feeling chills (also called frisson) while listening to music.
Each selected 10 pieces of instrumental music they responded to. The selections represented a wide variety of genres, including classical, electronica, folk and jazz.
Whenever the subjects reported experiencing a chill, the McGill researchers measured the accompanying levels of dopamine in their system.
What they discovered is that dopamine entered different areas of the brain, depending on whether the subjects were anticipating their favorite sections of the piece or actually experiencing “peak emotional arousal” when those sections were being performed.
So what does this mean exactly?
Basically, not only does music make you feel good, which you probably already knew, but just expecting it to make you feel good can also be pleasurable.
Thanks, Science, for clearing that point up.
In all seriousness, these findings are interesting in that they help demystify why many of us can respond so enthusiastically, and so individually, to what are essentially patterns of tones. (Remember, this was instrumental music, so emotional response to lyrics wasn’t a factor.)
Some people might question scientists’ incessant need to peer behind the curtain and explain those things that are almost magical in their mystery, but I, for one, am fascinated no end by this.
Even if all I’m reacting to is a rush of dopamine, the fact that I can experience the same chemical response to hearing Miles Davis’ “Freddie Freeloader” as a cocaine addict does to smoking crack is pretty mind-blowing.
The McGill scientists agree — if in more academic terminology — writing: “If music-induced emotional states can lead to dopamine release … it may begin to explain why musical experiences are so valued.”
Lest you stop reading with feeling a lessening of your reverence for music, I leave you with this quote by the Chinese academic and philosopher Confucius:
“Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.”
Contact Casey Phillips at 423-757-6205 or cphillips@timesfreepress.com.