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Heartfelt melodies: When we listen to our favorite music, we often get goosebumps or a pleasant shiver. Researchers have now made visible what happens in our brains using the brain waves of people listening to music. The results confirm that our reward system kicks in when a musician is particularly intense and the happiness hormone dopamine is also released.
Music has a strong influence on our emotions. It activates our reward system, ensures the release of the dopamine happiness hormone, and can even affect how we perceive other sensory stimuli such as touch. With particularly emotional music, a pleasant shiver runs through our backs or we get goosebumps. A firework of signals takes place in our brain.
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Researchers led by Thibault Chabin of the University of Bourgogne Franche-Comté have now made the processes in the brain visible with a special EEG technology. For the so-called high-density EEG (HD-EEG), they placed electrodes at various points on the subjects’ scalp. The large number of electrodes allows you to draw precise conclusions about which brain regions are activated. Previous studies required complex imaging procedures such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET).
In the experiment by Chabin and colleagues, on the other hand, the test subjects were able to make themselves comfortable in the armchair while listening to songs of their favorite music on headphones. At the push of a button, test subjects indicated how emotionally the music was affecting them and when they had goosebumps. Meanwhile, the researchers measured their brain activity.
Previously, the participants had also indicated where they expected goosebumps. “The participants in our study were able to accurately predict goosebumps moments in the songs,” Chabin reports. “But they also experienced a lot of goosebumps in other previously unexpected places.”
The reward system reacts
Evaluation of the EEG data showed: If the test subjects found the music particularly loud, there was a clear activation of certain areas of the brain, most notably the insula, orbitofrontal cortex and supplementary motor cortex. These regions play a role in the processing of sensory impressions and emotions, as well as in the learning and planning of movement sequences.
The researchers observed specific theta activity in the brain, especially during goosebumps. This type of brain wave is associated with memory and expected benefits. According to the researchers, this could indicate that the brain’s reward system kicks in at these times and the happiness hormone dopamine is also released. Previous studies had already shown that this activation can be related to chills.
The links could explain the individual differences
Those who get goosebumps from music may also have stronger connections between different brain regions such as the medial prefrontal cortex, the insula, and parts of the temporal lobe – structures involved in auditory perception and emotional processing. This has been suggested by previous studies. Chabin and colleagues were unable to directly examine these connections, but they also found activity in corresponding brain regions.
“The fact that we were able to measure these phenomena in the EEG opens up the possibility of studies in other contexts, in scenarios more closely linked to daily life and with groups,” says Chabin. “Unlike complicated imaging technologies like PET and fMRI, a classic EEG can simply be transported and then taken from the lab to a more natural environment. These are good prospects for exploring emotions through music “.
Take social aspects into account
With this, the researchers also want to address the question of what evolutionary advantage our strong emotional reactions to music have or have. “The most surprising thing is that music doesn’t seem to have any biological benefit for us,” says Chabin. “However, the activation of the reward system during the processing of musical pleasure suggests that music has an ancient function.”
Obviously, the social context is of paramount importance. So far, however, this context has hardly been mapped with test people in the test tube. “We want to measure in natural environments how the brain and body reactions to music are linked in different participants,” explains Chabin. “Musical pleasure is a very interesting phenomenon that deserves further research so that we can understand why music is associated with reward for us. In this way we can find out why music is essential for people’s lives. “(Frontiers in Neuroscience, 2020; doi: 10.3389 / fnins.2020.565815)
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