NRSC 4132 Blog

Have you ever been frustrated while driving in traffic only to turn on the music and feel better? I believe that most people would agree with me when I say music is absolutely essential to life and can turn a bad day around with a simple chorus.

In January 2011 issue of Nature Neuroscience, the article "Anatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation and experience of peak emotion to music", endogenous dopamine released in the striatum was found to occur at peak arousal while listening to music. Music often elicits feelings of euphoria and joy similar to the rewards involving the striatal dopaminergic system.

Of course everyone has their own taste in music and different songs give pleasure to different people. Thus, in this study the "chills" or "musical frisson" response, a commonly used marker of peak emotional response to music, was used. This technique involves a discrete pattern of ANS arousal which allows researchers to take a subjective phenomenon (pleasure to music) and pinpoint the precise timing of optimal pleasure. Participants were asked to choose their own pleasurable music and their psychophysiological responses, such as: heart rate and respiration rate, as well as brain imaging scans were taken while they listened. Two PET scanning sessions were conducted and the sessions showed an overall increase in ANS activity during the pleasurable music condition.

These researchers used fMRI's to image the route of dopamine release. They found that the caudate was more involved during anticipation and the nucleus accumbens was more involved during the emotional responses to music; indicating that enjoying your music can lead to the release of dopamine in the striatal system. More specifically the results of this study show that listening to music is associated with dopamine activity in the mesolimbic reward system. If "music-induced emotional states" can lead to dopamine release and subsequent feelings of happiness, it may explain why music is universally valued!

After reading this article I couldn't help but think about ELO's Mr. Blue Sky and how this song's lyrics allow me to feel joy regardless of where I am. With an upbeat melody and the lyrics:

Sun is shinin' in the sky
There ain't a cloud in sight
It's stopped rainin' everybody's in a play
And don't you know
It's a beautiful new day hey, hey

Runnin' down the avenue
See how the sun shines brightly in the city
On the streets where once was pity
Mister blue sky is living here today hey, hey

Mister blue sky please tell us why
You had to hide away for so long
Where did we go wrong?

Hey you with the pretty face
Welcome to the human race
A celebration, mister blue sky's up there waitin'
And today is the day we've waited for?

How could you not feel elated?!
To read this article or get more information, check out: https://cuvpn.colorado.edu/neuro/journal/v14/n2/full/,DanaInfo=www.nature.com+nn.2726.html.