• Question: What makes music so pleasing to humans?

    Asked by shrimpiesoup to Mario, Jasmine, Dr D, Alexis on 26 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Andrew Devitt

      Andrew Devitt answered on 26 Jun 2013:

      Now this is weird. I was thinking about this last night as I watched an advert for Glastonbury. We all seem to like different music too.

      I’m not sure of the details. No doubt that there’ll be patterns within the music that stimulate our brain and create pleasure. This sort of response from the pleasure centre of our brain will also be stimulated with other things that people love like food and sex.

      There are some songs that really make you feel upbeat and give you pleasure. But I was wondering if we all experience that same pleasure, in the same way. I wonder if we all respond in exactly the same way or whether there are some differences.

      There’s lots of research out there but I’ve not read it I’m afraid.

      What music gives you so much pleasure? I am sure that some music that I particularly love is because I associate it with certain events in my life when I was really happy. Music is very evocative and reminds me if where I was when I heard it.

    • Photo: Alexis Barr

      Alexis Barr answered on 26 Jun 2013:

      Mmm – great question. I think the truthful answer is that noone really knows yet. Scientists are working on it though and have had some breakthroughs. A few years ago, scientists used brain scans to look at people’s brains after they had heard their favourite song. What they saw was that a chemical called dopamine was released in large amounts in the brain about 15 minutes after listening to the song. Dopamine can make people fell excited and so would be pleasing to the person involved.
      This is only one effect of music though – I’m sure there are many other effects and explanations.

    • Photo: Jasmine Penny

      Jasmine Penny answered on 26 Jun 2013:

      Great question! I’m not an expert but I think humans associate music with different events. Sometimes these can be happy things and other times it can remind us of something sad that happened. Other people find that they can switch off from their worries when listening to music. I personally listen to different types of music depending on what I am doing. If I need to relax, I listen to something classical and calming; if I am getting to go out, I listen to something really up-beat and if I need cheering up I listen to something I can sing along too. There are probably all kinds of hormonal and signalling reactions occurring in the brain to stimulate my mood but I don’t know what they are…it is something very interesting to think about!

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