Why we love music

In our life sometimes we would have wondered how music is influencing us while other sounds are not. Why is it creating a strong feeling and binding us with other people? Scientist has found the answers using FMRI technology. A neuroscientist, Valorie Salimpoor, from McGill University says “A single musical tone does note influence us but when it’s being harmonized with other notes it causes a tremendous effect on the brain”.

When we look at the tasty food we salivate similarly, dopamine is released in the nucleus accumbens in our brains when we hear the emotional moments of music. Our brains start storing music and predict the music flow as early as 8 months old onwards. Also, dopamine seeps out of the caudate nucleus when the prediction about the peak emotional moments is made. The prediction of peak emotional moments and the pleasure of peak emotional moments drive us to the music very much.

Nucleus accumbens and Caudate nucleus

What happens to us when we are exposed to new music? The interaction between dopamine released from the nucleus accumbens and the higher cortical structures of the brain cause pattern recognition, musical memory, and emotional processing and predict where the music is heading. The higher cortical area is responsible for language, vision, visuospatial recognition, and awareness. The dopamine is released again as the result of prediction and no dopamine release if there is no prediction.

Some may wonder why people are adhering to some genre of music. For the different genres of music, different patterns are stored in the brain.  When the music of the particular genre and patterns in the matches, they adhere to the particular genre of music. So people exposed to a large genre of music will find a varied musical taste and this is true with the professional musicians. Some people hear some music again and again because of the release of dopamine due to more predictability of the song. It can simulate a person even after many years. Also, the music can be tiresome when it is easily predictable. Example pop music. While interesting when it is not easily predictable. Example jazz music.

The fastness of the rhythms and the loudness of the music resonate in the brain and increase the enjoyability and emotion and vice versa. The dynamics of the music cause the change in firing speed between the mirror neuron. Higher the tempo, the higher the firing. These neurons are responsible for the internal experience of the external world. The musical rhythm affects the brain’s rhythm. How you feel at the moment is the expression of the brain rhythm. When the musical rhythm sync with the brain rhythm, emotion is transferred from one person to another person. That is the reason people become more emotional with pleasure in a concert hall. Also, the same music seems to differ for different people and it depends on the learning situation or association you have with it.

“Let the music give you sweet emotional release”

Image source: https://www.classicfm.com/events/schools-prom/pictures/dream-orchestra

Image source: https://www.thermofisher.com/blog/proteomics/depression-mediated-by-phosphorylation-in-the-nucleus-accumbens/

Salimpoor, V., Benovoy, M., Larcher, K. et al. Anatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation and experience of peak emotion to music. Nat Neurosci 14, 257–262 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2726.

Alluri V, Toiviainen P, Lund TE, Wallentin M, Vuust P, Nandi AK, Ristaniemi T, Brattico E. From Vivaldi to Beatles and back: predicting lateralized brain responses to music. Neuroimage. 2013 Dec;83:627-36. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.06.064.

Chapin H, Jantzen K, Scott Kelso JA, Steinberg F, Large E (2010) Dynamic Emotional and Neural Responses to Music Depend on Performance Expression and Listener Experience. PLOS ONE 5(12): e13812. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0013812.