Is The Sound Of Music A Drug?

People have always valued and loved music, investing time in both composing and listening to it. New York Times journalists investigated to find out why we are so attached to something intangible and without material benefits (for most of us).

A relatively simple and quick answer is that music creates pleasure and induces well-being. However, scientists have tried to delve into the subtleties of the phenomenon to understand the correlations between music and the human brain.

Study on the effects of music on the brain

More than a decade ago, a team of researchers, led by two neuroscientists, Robert J. Zatorre and Valorie N. Salimpoor, demonstrated that music, which people describe as having the ability to arouse strong emotions, activates centers involved. in reward, motivation, and emotion.

Moreover, the research pointed out that when we listen to what we might call an "emotional peak moment" (those moments when we feel a thrill of pleasure while listening to a certain musical sequence), a release of dopamine occurs, an important signaling molecule.

Thus, when we listen to pleasant music, dopamine is released in an area of ​​the brain that responds to natural reward stimuli, such as food or sex.

To find out more about how music triggers the brain's reward system, the scientists launched a study that mimicked buying music online.

Specifically, their goal was to determine what goes on in the brain when someone listens to a new song and decides that they liked it enough to buy it. The results showed that the activity associated with the reward was directly proportional to the amount of money people were willing to pay.

"When people listen to a piece of music that they have never heard before, their brain activity can tell us if they like it or if they will buy it. It is this creation of expectations that makes music so emotionally powerful, "said Salimpoor, a professor of neuroscience at the Research Institute in Toronto, according to The Telegraph.

"It's very interesting because the music is made up of a series of sounds that, when taken separately, have no value, but arranged together according to patterns can act as rewards," said Robert Zatorre, a professor of neurology at the Montreal Neurological Institute.

The sound of music, a real drug?

The sound of music can be considered a real drug, able to activate the brain as a chemical stimulant and provide sensations of pleasure, arousal, or satisfaction similar to those provided by sex and drugs, says professor and researcher in neurology, Daniel J. Levitin, former rock musician and record producer, professor at McGill University in Montreal, quoted by descubă.ro.

During the tests, it was discovered that "music produces a chemical reaction, thanks to which the neural circuits involved help modulate the levels of dopamine, the so-called hormone of well-being in the brain," said Levitin. That is, exactly what happens in the case of sexual activity and the use of certain drugs.

While listening to cheerful or sentimental songs, exhilarating or relaxing, there are changes in the vegetative nervous system that affect blood pressure, heart rate, breathing, sweating, and other physiological reactions.

This conclusion, Levitin set out in the book Our Musical Brain, noting that safety plays an important role in the choice of music. To a certain extent, we entrust ourselves to music when we listen to it - we allow ourselves to open to composers and musicians a part of our heart and spirit; we let the music carry us somewhere outside of us.

Many of us feel that great musical concerts connect us with something wider than our existence, with other people or with God, says the author.

However, not all the effects of music on the human brain are positive. Some types of music can cause loss of symmetry between the two cerebral hemispheres, learning disabilities, and disruptive behavior in children, and can lead to decreased work capacity in adults.

Experts believe that these effects are the result of the rhythm of the music. To have beneficial effects, music must have certain attributes, respectively be sufficiently complex and involve intense brain activity.