a very interesting article about music and the brain. ;-) .oOo.
Title: Study: Music Stimulates the Brain
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| Health - Associated Press - updated 10:26 PM ET Oct 9 |
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Study: Music Stimulates the BrainBy PAUL RECER, AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - In a study that may explain why some people have a powerful emotional response to music, researchers have found that melodies can stimulate the same parts of the brain as food and sex. ``People now are using music to help them deal with sadness and fear,'' said Dr. Anne Blood, a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital in Charlestown, Mass. ``We are showing in our study that music is triggering systems in the brain that makes them feel happy.'' Blood and her co-author, Robert Zatorre of McGill University in Montreal, used positron emission tomography, or PET scans, to find areas of the brain that are stimulated by music found so moving by the test subjects that it ``sent shivers down the spine.'' The researchers found that many of the brain structures activated by the euphoria of food or sex also are turned on by music. A report on the study appears Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (news - web sites). ``In the reward and emotion systems of the brain, there are certain structures that are active,'' Blood said. This activity clearly shows up when patients are given PET scans at the same time they are experiencing the stimuli that produce euphoria. Previous studies have linked the midbrain, the ventral striatum and parts of the cortex to sex and food. The new study, Blood said, clearly shows a similar response in these areas to musical sounds that the test subjects had preselected as beautiful enough to give them ``chills.'' There was no such response, however, to other types of sound. Dr. Ira Glick, professor of psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine, said music ``is one way to cope'' in periods of stress, and it is known that ``behind every emotion and every piece of behavior there is a change in a molecule. ``With this new technology, the PET, for the first time we can see it,'' he said. ``It is exciting to see the biology unfold before our eyes as we explore the human mind.'' In the study, Blood and Zatorre asked 10 musicians, five men and five women, to pick out music whose beauty caused them to have ``chills.'' The subjects were then given PET scans as they listened to four types of audio stimuli - the selected music, other music, general noise or silence. Each sequence was repeated three times in random order. Blood said when the subjects heard the music that gave them ``chills,'' then the PET scans detected activity in the portions of the brain that are also stimulated by food and sex. Although the tested subjects were all musicians, Blood said that ``80 percent of people experience these chills'' from some types of music. ``The experience of chills is a very common phenomenon, and it is highly likely that the same (brain) structures would be active in other people,'' she said. Blood said the reaction to music is highly individualized and culturally based. She said this suggests that some people may react to rock 'n' roll in the same way that others are affected by Beethoven. ``Everyone has their own preferences'' in what evokes these chills, said the researcher. ``The brain activity is related to the chills and not to the type of music.'' The study suggests, Blood said, that ``we are born with the ability to appreciate a lot of different types of music. It is what we are exposed to that ends up having meaning for us.'' Just why humans developed such a biologically based appreciation of music is not clear. The appreciation of food and the drive for sex evolved to help the survival of the species, but ``music did not develop strictly for survival purposes,'' she said. ``Because it activates the parts the brain that makes us happy suggests that music benefits our physical and mental well-being,'' Blood said. - On the Net: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: http://www.eurekalert.org Earlier Stories
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