Author: Alulull
Music has a magical appeal. Sometimes, we experience the shock of the heart from the melody and unconsciously get goosebumps... Don't goosebumps only pick up when it's cold? How did it relate to music?
On our skin, there are small muscles that connect to the hair follicles, and these muscles are called "hair muscles" . When the erect hair muscle contracts, we will see the hairs on the skin erect and goosebumps appear.
Almost all hairy mammals get "goosebumps." This aspect is to ward off the cold – erect hairs can restrict air flow, creating a layer of insulation on the surface of the skin. Animals, on the other hand, erect hairs when threatened. At this time, the "fried hair" effect produced by goosebumps can make the animal's body look more burly.
A cat for fear of "exploding hair", which is common among mammals. Image courtesy of sksiddhartthan
For us humans, the need to keep ourselves out of the cold and make ourselves appear large is gone, but the system remains in our bodies. Moreover, it is also linked to richer emotional responses. The reasons for a person to get goosebumps can be very varied: sometimes a disgusting picture, sometimes a lover's caress, sometimes a shocking natural landscape, a work of art, and sometimes even a little brain activity. The goosebumps associated with enjoying music are called "frisson" and we can call it "aesthetic chills."
Regardless of the trigger, each type of goosebump has a common physiological mechanism: a strong arousal of the sympathetic nervous system. In this state, many changes occur in the body, including increased heart rate and breathing, increased electrical reactions to the skin, and a decrease in body temperature and pulse amplitude. Through instrumental testing, researchers can accurately record goosebumps.
At the onset of goosebumps, there are drastic changes in the electrical (gsr), body temperature (temp), heart rate (heart rate), blood volume pulse amplitude (bvp amp), and respiratory (respiration) indicators. This also facilitates the study of measurements. Image source: salimpoor et al., 2009.
In addition to the serious name, "listening to music and getting goosebumps" is also an unexpectedly vivid saying - skin orgasm. Fearing misunderstanding, the term "skin orgasm" has failed to gain the favor of a wide range of researchers [1].
It wasn't really an orgasm, but it was a very pleasant reaction. Experiments have found that changes in physiological indicators that mark goosebumps are exacerbated as participants' scores of musical pleasure increase and peak when the frisson phenomenon occurs [2].
This pleasure doesn't stop at the surface of the skin. When we get goosebumps and enjoy music, it's also an active scene in the brain. In 2001, a team of professor zatorre at McGill University in Canada completed a classic study. In the study, participants each chose to listen to a song that would produce a frisson response while undergoing a positron emission computed tomography (pet). It was found that when physiological indicators such as skin electricity indicated that frisson occurred, the local blood flow in several brain regions of the participants underwent significant changes, the most notable of which was the increase in blood flow in the ventral striatum.
The name ventral striatum may be unfamiliar, but it is actually an important part of the brain's reward system. Here there is a structure called the nucleus accumbens, which is associated with almost all the experiences that make us happy. Whether it's a meal at the dinner table or a mutual affection in the bedroom, it can prompt the accumbens to release dopamine, and the drugs that make people unable to extricate themselves are also related to it. Further studies provide more definitive evidence that pleasurable dopamine is also released here when frisson occurs [4].
Dopamine not only allows us to enjoy the moment, but it also helps the brain remember the pleasurable experiences of specific musical fragments. Therefore, when the same clip sounds again, we begin to look forward to the emotional explosion of that moment, which in turn will further promote the production of pleasure. From this point of view, it is indeed fitting to call frisson a "skin orgasm".
How is "pleasant chills" related to music?
Why is the concert so enjoyable and associated with goosebumps? Scientists are still looking for the specific mechanism behind this.
Music is neither a necessity for survival nor a chemical that acts directly on the body, but the principle of arousing pleasure is almost exactly the same. Researchers speculate that as the human brain becomes more complex, there is some connection between the ancient, survival-related reward system and the brain regions responsible for higher cognitive activities, making low-level reflex responses like goosebumps part of aesthetic experiences such as music.
The above speculation was quickly preliminarily verified. A 2013 article published in the journal Science[5] found that when people listen to some highly rated music from individuals, the accumbens, which are responsible for providing pleasure, create a strong functional connection with the auditory cortex responsible for music perception.
One theory is that some pieces of music can cause strong emotional reactions because they can break people's expectations. For example, the climax of many pieces of music will have a new melody or a different way of expressing the harmony, or the intensity of the sound suddenly becomes larger, and the most shocking part is often these unexpected parts. Therefore, this view is that the pleasure generated by music is actually encouraging us to detect and distinguish novel sounds, which is beneficial to the survival of human ancestors.
Another theory gives music more social functions. According to the earliest instruments found so far, the birth of music can be traced back at least 35,000 years. At that time, the living environment of human beings was very harsh, and music could make people temporarily forget the hardships of life and obtain a moment of peace of mind. The experience of playing together or listening to music also strengthens the cohesion of the group (think of a scene where everyone involuntarily claps together while listening to a song). Music, like words, is not simply the product of biological evolution, but a "technology" created by the human brain. While people use music to express emotions, music also affects the way people perceive the world.
Left: A flute made of animal bones found in Germany, with two arms dating back to 35,000 and 20,000 years, respectively; right: A mural found in a cave in southwestern France, probably the earliest painting depicting an instrument playing scene. Photo credit: altenmüller et al., 2013.
The chills of pleasure brought by music are very common, but this feeling is not experienced by everyone, and some people even lack "musical pleasure" at all.
According to a 2014 paper published in current biology[7], people with a lack of musical pleasure make up about 2% of the population. These people were able to rationally analyze the emotions the music was trying to convey, but they couldn't empathize; but when playing a gambling game that had nothing to do with music, they, like other subjects, had emotional ups and downs because they won or lost. According to the author of the article, "They still love money, but they just don't love music." ”
Differences in musical pleasure are influenced by various factors. For example, musical training strengthens the connection between the striatum and the cortex, and music students are more likely to produce frisson than medical students [8]. Other behavioral studies have found an association between personality and musical pleasure. Among them, a personality trait called "open to experience" is most relevant to the frison experience. People with this personality trait tend to be imaginative, willing to seek fresh experiences, and willing to dig deeper into their feelings. People with more open experience will not enter and exit the right ear when listening to music, but will mobilize a variety of cognitive functions to immerse themselves in it, which is more likely to produce a pleasant "aesthetic chill" [9].
If you're wondering if you're sensitive to musical pleasure, try filling out the Barcelona Music Awards Questionnaire (link: http://brainvitge.org/z_oldsite/bmrq.php), which has been used in many studies. The questionnaire gives you a comprehensive score on your ability to get rewards from your music (i.e. the music reward column at the bottom of the page). If you score above 60, you are a very susceptible to music-infected philharmonics; if you score below 40, it means that you may have a harder time enjoying music than most people.
Now, there are still many mysteries behind this experience. But what is certain is that this is a wonderful reward that the brain gives to human beings.
In which musical compositions have you experienced pleasant goosebumps?
(Editor: Window knocking rain)
bibliography:
harrison, l., & loui, p. (2014). thrills, chills, frissons, and skin orgasms: toward an integrative model of transcendent psychophysiological experiences in music. frontiers in psychology, 5.
salimpoor, v. n., benovoy, m., longo, g., cooperstock, j. r., & zatorre, r. j. (2009). the rewarding aspects of music listening are related to degree of emotional arousal. plos one, 4(10), e7487.
blood, a. j., & zatorre, r. j. (2001). intensely pleasurable responses to music correlate with activity in brain regions implicated in reward and emotion. proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 98(20), 11818-11823.
salimpoor, v. n., benovoy, m., larcher, k., dagher, a., & zatorre, r. j. (2011). anatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation and experience of peak emotion to music. nature neuroscience, 14(2), 257-262.
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