Here’s a perhaps not-so-surprising discovery: Listening to music releases the same chemicals in the brain that having sex or eating do. No wonder music is popular around the world.
The just-released study revolved around dopamine, a substance that once released in the brain sparks pleasure from chowing down or making love, and produces the high from drugs.
Researchers at McGill University in Montreal found that instrumental music alone, without singing voices, will prompt the release of dopamine. An article on the study was posted online by the journal Nature Neuroscience.
http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nn.2726.html
In the study eight volunteers were picked because they felt chills during certain points in their favorite music, according to the Associated Press. But even those who don’t feel such chills during music still feel the effects of the release of dopamine.
PET scans found that participants in the study released more dopamine in the part of the brain called the striatum when they were listening to a favorite song than when they heard other musical pieces, according to AP.
Dopamine levels rose in one part of the striatum during the 15 seconds that led to a person’s favorite moment in a song, and in another part of it when that favorite moment arrived.
According to researchers, that makes sense.
“The area linked to anticipation connects with parts of the brain involved with making predictions and responding to the environment, while the area reacting to the peak moment itself is linked to the brain’s limbic system, which is involved in emotion,” AP said.
