Music Brain Scans
(Here’s an article which explains why music is such a powerful part of our lives)
Music Strikes a Chord in the Brain, Scans Show NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – It may not be necessary for survival, but music taps into the same brain structures that things as crucial to life as food and sex do, researchers report. The investigators found that the music their study participants said gave them “chills” also activated the brain’s reward and emotion centers–the same areas that have been found to “light up” when stimulated by food, sex and drugs of abuse.
In the September 25th issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (news – web sites), researchers describe the finding as “remarkable,” since music has no effect on survival, nor does it directly alter the brain as drugs do. They suggest that music–which is woven into the fabric of all cultures–may be essential to humans’ sense of well-being.
Dr. Anne J. Blood of Massachusetts General Hospital in Charlestown led the study of 10 musicians. She and colleague Robert J. Zatorre of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, had the participants each pick a piece of music that consistently sent shivers down their spine.
They then used positron emission tomography, or PET scans, to view which areas of the brain were activated by the music. All of the participants chose classical pieces as their spine-tingling favorites. The PET scans, Blood and Zatorre found, illustrated clear effects of the musical selections–as the intensity of participants’ “chills” increased, blood flow in particular brain regions changed in tandem.
“The ability of music to induce such intense pleasure and its…stimulation of (the brain’s) reward systems suggest that, although music may not be imperative for survival of the human species, it may indeed be of significant benefit to our mental and physical well-being,” the researchers conclude.
They also note that although the study participants were all musicians, music lovers of all sorts may experience such intense responses to their favorite tunes.
SOURCE: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2001;98:11818
(Here’s an article which explains why music is such a powerful part of our lives)
Music Strikes a Chord in the Brain, Scans Show NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – It may not be necessary for survival, but music taps into the same brain structures that things as crucial to life as food and sex do, researchers report. The investigators found that the music their study participants said gave them “chills” also activated the brain’s reward and emotion centers–the same areas that have been found to “light up” when stimulated by food, sex and drugs of abuse.
In the September 25th issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (news – web sites), researchers describe the finding as “remarkable,” since music has no effect on survival, nor does it directly alter the brain as drugs do. They suggest that music–which is woven into the fabric of all cultures–may be essential to humans’ sense of well-being.
Dr. Anne J. Blood of Massachusetts General Hospital in Charlestown led the study of 10 musicians. She and colleague Robert J. Zatorre of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, had the participants each pick a piece of music that consistently sent shivers down their spine.
They then used positron emission tomography, or PET scans, to view which areas of the brain were activated by the music. All of the participants chose classical pieces as their spine-tingling favorites. The PET scans, Blood and Zatorre found, illustrated clear effects of the musical selections–as the intensity of participants’ “chills” increased, blood flow in particular brain regions changed in tandem.
“The ability of music to induce such intense pleasure and its…stimulation of (the brain’s) reward systems suggest that, although music may not be imperative for survival of the human species, it may indeed be of significant benefit to our mental and physical well-being,” the researchers conclude.
They also note that although the study participants were all musicians, music lovers of all sorts may experience such intense responses to their favorite tunes.
SOURCE: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2001;98:11818
