Brain scans unravel a lasting mystery about our love for music

Why do we like music? Why sometimes Very good music The hair on my arm stuck We tremble —Is there any obvious biological benefit to enjoying music?

These are questions that researchers at McGill University in Canada have been studying for many years. Now they believe that when they listened to the music we love, they clearly proved what was happening in the brain.

their Investigation result Published on Monday Journal of Neuroscience..

background- In their previous study, Robert Zatore And Ernest Mas Elero We have established a correlation between subjects listening to the music they love and activities that are part of the brain’s reward system. Striatum..

Activities in the area are usually joy Zatore says it’s related to survival Reverse..

“For 67 years, we’ve known that when we feed mice on an empty stomach and measure their activity in the brain, the striatum reacts very strongly to the very enjoyable substances needed to survive. “He says.

The joy that rats feel comes from soothing neurotransmitters Dopamine, Freed by layers when consuming what it takes to survive.

The striatum is also there to respond to biological stimuli, Zatore says. It is the striatum that helps identify if it is too cold and needs to be warm, or vice versa. It responds to sexual stimulation, and essentially everything Zatore says is “very biologically driven.”

Still, music is not one of the things we have traditionally considered necessary to survive. Previous studies by researchers have shown a correlation between music and the striatum, but researchers wanted to see if they could prove the cause.

What they did — In a controlled study of 17 participants, Zatore and Maserero Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TSM) Stimulates or suppresses the striatum while the subject is listening to pop music.

During TSM, a magnetic coil is placed in a specific area of ​​the brain where a technician sends a burst of electromagnetic pulses to that area of ​​the brain to stimulate activity. Depending on the frequency of bursts, TSM can also block activity in target areas of the brain.

After listening to music while undergoing TSM, the subject is transferred to an fMRI machine, allowing researchers to see exactly what is happening in the subject’s striatum and auditory complex (the area of ​​the brain that processes the music). I did.

Satore explains the thinking process as follows: [TSM] To stimulate the striatum and at the same time measure brain activity, we need to make sure that the stimulus affects the striatum and that striatal activity makes a difference in how people perceive music. .. “

Researchers also included value factors in their studies. Subjects were asked how much they would pay to buy the music they were listening to at different levels of excitatory TSM stimulation (a type designed to activate the striatum and release dopamine).Part of the brain’s reward system is designed to evaluate how much value You put it on something.

What they found — The· Research results Confirmed the team’s hypothesis: the striatum and the auditory complex were discussing with each other.

“The auditory part of the brain was more correlated with the striatum when the stimulus was positive than when the stimulus was negative,” says Zatore.

This is important. “When you really like the music you’re listening to, the striatum interacts with the auditory cortex. It’s the part of the brain that actually recognizes different sound patterns. Rhythms, and melodic expectations patterns. ”Previous studies suggest that communication between different regions of the brain can have a powerful impact on us. Emotions and actions..

“Chills are a sign of awakening.”

This is how the joy we get (or don’t get) from music is the result of communication between the auditory complex and the striatum, and as a result, how excited or suppressed the striatum. Is decisively shown.

How the striatum was stimulated corresponded not only to how much the subject appreciated the song, but also to the amount they were willing to pay for it. (Anyone who pays an absurd amount for a concert ticket may be familiar with this process.)

Big point — Zatorre and Mas Herrero also found that the chills we experience, especially in inspiring music, are also directly related to the survival system of the brain.

“Chills are a sign of awakening,” says Satore.

It doesn’t have to be a good awakening, he adds. If you feel someone walking behind you in a dark alley, you will also feel chills. That is how your autonomic nervous system reacts. Your heart rate and breathing will increase, and your skin will grow. Blood vessels on the surface of the skin contract because the body is trying to protect its hearing in case it has to escape danger.

“We see the same pattern of all of them, [are various states of arousal–-both good and bad] Even if there is no chills, “Zattore says. He explains that when people feel chills from music, their awakening is “simply maximal.” The same basic process works when listening to music that doesn’t cause chills, but at a much lower level.

What’s next- Researchers have not finished their research. The team is currently working with a group in Tel Aviv to develop “music feedback ideas to motivate and delight people with reward system disorders such as Parkinson’s disease.”

They haven’t tested anything on the patient yet — so far, it’s all very . But he adds that it’s worth a blow, even if it doesn’t work the way they want.

“Both methods we learn something,” he says. “And that is the goal of science and learning.”

In the meantime, whether you’re having a pandemic blues or just having a bad day, it will take some time to listen to your favorite music. Science says it may help you survive.

Overview: Pleasure-inducing musical abilities have recently been the subject of intense neuroscientific research. Previous neuroimaging studies have shown that music-induced pleasures are involved in the cortical striatal circuits associated with the expectation and receipt of biologically related rewards / incentives, but these reports report. It is inevitably correlated. Here, the cause and effect of this circuit by applying transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to the left dorsolateral prefrontal area in combination with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of 17 male and female participants. I studied both the role and its temporal dynamics. Behaviorally, in line with previous findings, we found that excitement of the frontal striatal pathway enhances subjective reporting of music-induced joy and motivation. On the other hand, banning the same circuit reduced both. The fMRI activity pattern showed that these behavioral changes were caused by bidirectional TMS-induced changes in frontal striatal function. Specifically, changes in nucleus accumbens (NAcc) activity predict modulation of both hedonic and motivational responses, between the 49-year-old empirical and empirical elements of musical reward. It was accompanied by dissociation. In addition, TMS-induced changes in fMRI functional connectivity between NAcc and the frontal and auditory cortex predicted the degree of regulation of hedonic responses. These results indicate that the involvement of the cortical striatal pathway and NAcc in particular is essential for experiencing rewarding emotions from music.