oboeinsight

It’s sure my drug of choice! Along with chocolate, of course!

Ever had goosebumps or felt euphoric chills when listening to a piece of music? If so, your brain is reacting to the music in the same way as it would to some delicious food or a psychoactive drug such as cocaine, according to scientists.

The experience of pleasure is mediated in all these situations by the release of the brain’s reward chemical, dopamine, according to results of experiments carried out by a team led by Valorie Salimpoor of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, which are published today in Nature Neuroscience.

Music seems to tap into the circuitry in the brain that has evolved to drive human motivation – any time we do something our brains want us to do again, dopamine is released into these circuits. “Now we’re showing that this ancient reward system that’s involved in biologically adaptive behaviours is being tapped into by a cognitive reward,” said Salimpoor.

So can we get addicted, I wonder?

I read it here.

… I’ve been negligent! After blogging about his Top 10 series I hadn’t checked up to see if he had more to say about his Top 10. So here are the links and videos to two more articles (click on the links to read the articles. You can play the videos right here, of course!):

The Vienna Four:

The Vienna Four (part 2):

Michael Jackson’s famous Neverland Ranch in California could possibly continue the late King of Pop’s love for music and the arts.

Colony Capital owns the massive property and hopes to turn the sprawling estate — which previously included a zoo and theme park complete with a Ferris wheel, rollercoaster, and railroad — into a Juilliard-like school for teens sharing a passion for music. (The Juilliard School, located in New York City, is a famous college known around the world for its drama, dance, and music programs.)

RTWT