People who become euphoric over music unleash dopamine, a brain chemical that also induces the sense of reward that comes from food, psychoactive drugs and money, an unusual study says.
McGill University researchers in Montreal, Canada, recruited eight volunteers aged 19-24 among 217 people who responded to advertisements requesting people who experienced “chills” — a marker of extreme pleasure — when listening to music.
After careful selection, the volunteers were put into a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner, which is able to spot a tagged chemical, raclopride, that works on dopamine receptors in brain cells. They were also wired up to sensors that measured them for heartbeat, respiration, temperature and skin conductance.
Listening to their favourite piece of spine-tingling music, the volunteers showed a rush of physical activity and also unlocked a release of dopamine in the striatum area of the brain.
The effect occurred even in anticipation, before the “chill” peak occurred.
But no such dopamine surge was seen when the volunteers listened to neutral music which, previous tests showed, was known to leave them emotionally cold. Seeking to find out more, the scientists then put the volunteers in a frequency magnetic resonance imaging scanner, which highlights flows of blood in the head, thus showing which part of the brain is being activated.
A part of the striatum known as the caudate was involved during the anticipation phase. But during the peak emotional response, a different striatum area known as the nucleus accumbens was involved.
The results shed light on the exclusive regard that humans have for music, say the researchers. —AFP