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Musical Thrills Are Explained as a Rush of Dopamine to the Brain

80beatsBy Eliza StricklandJanuary 11, 2011 6:28 AM


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Those delicious chills you get as your favorite piece of music reaches its climax? They're the result of a glorious spike of dopamine in your brain--that's the same neurotransmitter that's involved in reward, motivation, and addiction. In a nifty series of experiments published in Nature Neuroscience, researchers determined that music provokes floods of dopamine in music lovers. Study coauthor Valorie Salimpoor notes that dopamine has long been known to play a role in more physical activities like taking drugs and having sex, but this research highlights its role in other aspects of our lives.





The results showed that the subjects already had more dopamine than usual swishing through their systems. When the experiment was repeated with the subjects listening to "neutral" music that didn't move them, the PET scans showed less dopamine and more free receptors. Next, the researchers gave the music lovers fMRI scans to see which parts of their brains would light up as the pieces of music reached their emotional peaks, and found that two different regions of the brain registered increased activity.


Does this explain why teenagers are so passionate about their music? Why Grateful Dead fans followed the band from town to town? Why a devoted opera buff will see endless productions of Wagner's Ring Cycle? It certainly seems like a step in that direction.


Related Content: 80beats: Singing Therapy Can Rewire Brains of Speech-Impaired Stroke Patients

80beats: Monkeys Like Happy Monkey Music (and Metallica)



DISCOVER: Is Music for Wooing, Mothering, Bonding--or Is It Just "Auditory Cheesecake"?

Image: iStockphoto

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