Why is the voice of Elvis Presley singingLove me Tender excites us to the point of making our hair stand on end? A study carried out by a team of American scientists with healthy people and patients suffering from Williams syndrome – a rare genetic disorder caused by the loss of DNA on chromosome 7 – reveals that eListening to music causes us to release oxytocin and arginine vasopressin, two hormones linked to emotions. The study, published in the journalPLoS One, identifies genes that control emotional response and will help treat disease.
Patients affected by Williams syndrome, in addition to suffering from mental retardation, cardiovascular problems and difficulty in establishing social relationships, show a great affinity for music. Julie R. Korenber of the University of Utah decided to study how they reacted to music compared to healthy people. This was how he found that, before the music was played, people affected by the syndrome had three times more levels of oxytocin. However, listening to the melody only produced changes in hormone levels betweenhealthy people, who released large amounts of oxytocin and arginine vasopressin (AVP) into the bloodstream. When subjected to negative stress, such as putting their hands in hot water, blood tests in healthy subjects also showed an increase in both hormones, something that also did not happen in those affected by Williams syndrome. Thus, the researchers concluded that problems in the regulation of these hormones are directly involved in the symptoms of the disease and reduce thecapacity for social interaction.
On the other hand, the results of the work show that the genes absent in those affected by Williams syndrome affect the release of both hormones in the hypothalamus – an area of the brain that regulates appetite, mood, sexual desire, sleep, hunger and thirst – and the pituitary gland – involved in the secretion of various hormones. “The absence of thesegenes make us a little less human“Korenber and his colleagues say.
