The intense pleasure we feel when listening to music causes the brain to secrete dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is also released when faced with more specific pleasures associated with food, sex, drug use or money, according to a study published in the journalNature Neuroscience.
Using diagnostic imaging devices (PET, Magnetic Resonance …), the team of Valorie Salimpoor and Robert Zatorre, from McGill University in Montreal (Canada), measureddopamine secretion and brain activityof a dozen volunteerswhen listening to instrumental music, without human voices. The scan showed that the brain of the participants releasedmore dopamine– the neurotransmitter of pleasure – in a region called the striatum when the subjects listened to their favorite songs. Among the melodies chosen by the participants were Barber’s ” Adagio for strings ”, the second movement of Beethoven’s ” Ninth symphony ” and Debussy’s ” Claro de Luna ”.
Likewise, the analyzes revealed that dopamine is released at the “peak” moment of the melody, when it literally makes us shudder into a “chill”, in the same region linked to the euphoria produced by cocaine use. But also, a few seconds before, there is adopamine discharge in the area linked to anticipation and predictions.
“We are closer to understanding why abstract stimuli such as music and art give us pleasure, even though they are not necessary for survival,” say the authors, who assure thatmusic works as an amplifier of emotions.
