Turns out that music really is intoxicating, after all
Jstas
Posts: 14,842
An "outburst of the soul," the composer Frederick Delius called music. The sounds associated with the form produce "a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without," observed Confucius. It is the art "which is most nigh to tears and memory," noted the writer Oscar Wilde.
It turns out that these guys were more on target than we thought. Our experience of the music we love stimulates the pleasure chemical dopamine in our brain, concludes a new study produced by a slew of scholars at McGill University. The researchers followed the brain patterns of test subjects with MRI imaging, and identified dopamine streaming into the striatum region of their forebrains "at peak emotional arousal during music listening."
Not only that, but the scientists noticed that various parts of the striatum responded to the dopamine rush differently. The caudate was more involved during the expectation of some really nice musical excerpt, and the nucleus accumbens took the lead during "the experience of peak emotional responses to music."
In other words, just the anticipation our favorite passage stimulates the production of dopamine. "Our results help to explain why music is of such high value across all human societies," the writers conclude.
More article at the link:
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/01/turns-out-that-music-really-is-intoxicating-after-all.ars
Expert Moron Extraordinaire
You're just jealous 'cause the voices don't talk to you!
You're just jealous 'cause the voices don't talk to you!
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Very interesting. Confirms what I already knew though. Music can soothe the savage beast.SDA-1C (full mods)
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Very interesting. Confirms what I already knew though. Music can soothe the savage beast.
And it may induce the beast to emerge... Consider the use of certain music at sports events to excite and pump up the crowd, and (presumably) motivate the athletes. -
If only the 'musical experience' was as simple as brain chemistry and dopamine?
Alas, such are the illusions that men must propose in order to understand something that lies beyond 'understanding'. Most of what describes the 'meaningful' for humans is of a similar nature. And such reasoning goes back to Descartes. Nothing new here.
A round of dopamine for all of you!! No need to listen to music, just take a few pills...same effect...no? lol
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Isn't this applicable to all soothing/enjoyable experience through all our senses?
Hearing via beautiful music, touch via soothing textures/touches, visual via beautiful views, etc... -
Agreed! Natural dope, free dope, legal dope and un-harmfull dope with no harmfull side effects that is! I'm all for it :cool:Isn't this applicable to all soothing/enjoyable experience through all our senses?
Hearing via beautiful music, touch via soothing textures/touches, visual via beautiful views, etc...DARE TO SOAR:
Your attitude, almost always determine your altitude in life
