Favorite music promotes happiness in the brain – healing practice

What music does to our brain

Many people know that moment when we are sitting in the car or on the sofa or we go to a concert and then suddenly our favorite song is played. The music makes the hair stand on end, gives goosebumps, a pleasant shiver runs through our thorns and the memories of past experiences jump into our heads. Neuroscientists have recently studied what this phenomenon consists of.

Researchers at the French Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté in Besançon found that every second person’s favorite music regularly causes some sort of chills that activate the reward system in the brain. The results were recently presented in the journal “Frontiers in Neuroscience”.

Music triggers a measurable cold

Thibault Chabin’s research team examined the brains of 18 French participants using electroencephalography (EEG). All test takers previously said they regularly experience some sort of thrill when their favorite music is played. While the test people were connected to the EEG, their favorite music was being played.

The average age of the 11 female and 7 male participants was 40 years. Excerpts of their favorite songs were played to all test subjects for 15 minutes. A total of 305 “chills” were documented, which lasted an average of 8.75 seconds.

Music stimulates numerous areas of the brain

Whenever the participants heard the shower caused by the music, the researchers were able to document electrical activity in the so-called orbitofrontal cortex. The brain region is significantly involved in the processing of emotions. Furthermore, hearing stimulated a region of the midbrain, which is involved in controlling motor movement, as well as the right temporal lobe, which is responsible for auditory processing and musical perception.

The combination leads to a high of happiness

As the researchers report, the joint activation of these brain regions leads to the release of dopamine, a hormone and neurotransmitter that creates a feeling of well-being. “The fact that we can measure this phenomenon with the EEG opens up opportunities for studies in other contexts, in more natural settings and within groups,” explains research director Chabin. This is a good prospect for future research on music-related emotions.

Music triggers deeply rooted mechanisms

“The most fascinating thing is that music doesn’t seem to have any biological benefit for us,” comments the research team. However, the inclusion of the reward system in music processing suggests an ancestral function in the brain. “The enjoyment of music is a very interesting phenomenon that deserves further research to understand why music is so rewarding and to find out why music is indispensable in human life,” concludes Chabin. (vb)