Ever get the feeling of instantaneous satisfaction when listening to a song for the first time? Ever felt so compelled by the tune that you rushed to purchase the single off your local internet music provider? We all know the feeling.
Well, a group of Canadian neuroscientists have conducted the perfect study to figure out what exactly dictates whether we like a new song or not.
Scientists have discovered that the same area of the brain responsible for explaining why music generally makes people feel so good is also responsible for determining our initial reactions when we hear a song for the very first time.
According to Science Now, a new study published in US Journal Science reveals how the area known as the ‘nucleus accumbens,’ a part of the brain involved in reward processing, and is the same source of positive emotions in regards to enjoying good food and sexual pleasure, may also be involved in music recognition.
Researchers enlisted a handful of participants whose brains were scanned as they were exposed to a collection of new music in the genre of their particular favouring. Subjects were then asked not only whether they enjoyed the track, but how much money they were willing to pay for it. In an iTunes like format, they were exposed to roughly 30 seconds of audio before being asked if they would pay zero dollars, 99c, $1.29 or $2 for the music.
The study found that in cases where people decided that they would like to spend more money on music, regions in the brain associated with music and pleasure showed the most correlation between that and stronger brain responses. On the other hand, little response was found between the music they disliked and would not be prepared to pay for. “When we are listening to new music, we are constantly making predictions about how the sounds will unfold — even if we have never heard the music before.” – Valorie Salimpoor, Neuroscientist
One of the researchers involved in the experiment, Valorie Salimpoor, a leading scientitst from the Neurological Institute at Montreal’s McGill University, states that “this area (the nucleus accumbens) is important because it’s involved in forming expectations and these are expectations that could be rewarding. What makes music so emotionally powerful is the creation of expectation. Activity in the nucleus accumbens normally would indicate that expectations are being met or surpassed.”
“Since this part of the brain is unique to each person depending on their previous musical listening history, we can now understand why different people like different music,” Salimpoor told The Telegraph India, suggesting that music is an “abstract intellectual reward based on complex interactions between the nucleus accumbens” and other parts of the brain.
“When we are listening to new music, we are constantly making predictions about how the sounds will unfold — even if we have never heard the music before — and these predictions are based on earlier music listening experiences,” Salimpoor said.
Neuroscientists generally confer that the nucleus accumbens is thought to be the area of the brain responsible for pleasant surprises, or “positive prediction error.” Previously established patterns in our brains are used as a sort of precursor to predict what we will feel in the future. “We’re constantly making predictions, even if we don’t know the music,” Salimpoor says. “We’re still predicting how it should unfold.”
Past musical experiences will dictate the range of expectations formulated in the brain and subsequently the reaction to the introduction of new music.
Therefore, those who associate themselves with enjoying electronic music will obviously have different expectations and also different reactions to a piece of music than that of somebody who perhaps enjoys heavy metal. Each individual’s senses are hardwired to expect a certain sound and the satisfaction of the individual comes down to whether that sound is delivered or not.
“This part of the brain is the part that has stored all the templates of the music we’ve heard in the past and will be unique for each individuals,” Salimpoor added. “The way that we like music is 100% unique to who we are and what we’ve heard in the past and the way that our superior temporal gyrus has been shaped. The brain is working a bit like a music-recommendation system.”
Salimpoor furthermore concluded that “this, in turn, may help us understand why aesthetic experiences are so unique, why two different people with different experiences in life have very different reactions to music or art.” Demonstrating further that music is not a biological necessity for survival but one whose aesthetic appreciation continues to fascinate the world of science.
