Irene,
I gotta hand it to ya, that's a nice little study you pasted to
the list
Darn, I got my stuff sorta packed in box, but I had
a article from Al-Ghazzali who, back in the 10th century, stated
that music stimulates and brings out what was already pre-existent in the heart....
(as you know, in some cultures music is used for spirital upliftment,
not ours though......:(...)
Still, thats the best quote/study that I have seen on this
list and just wanna give ya a thumbs up.....Euphoria is a good
word to describe the feelings I get too......others.....estatic, over-whelmed,
enhanced, uncontrollably energetic...
Np: Russ Gabriel's, Vertigo........damn tune is solid as granite!
----- Original Message -----
From: Irene McC
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2001 12:58 AM
To: idm@hyperreal.org
Subject: [idm] article : music & "eargasms"
Since we as a community are self-confessed music-a-holics, I am
cutting and pasting this article:
<quote IOL>
Why music gives you 'eargasms'
September 25 2001 at 09:55AM
Washington - 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 are using music to help them deal with sadness and fear,"
said Anne Blood, a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital in
Charlestown. "We are showing in our study that music is triggering
systems in the brain that make them feel happy."
Blood and her co-author, Robert Zatorre of McGill University in
Montreal, used positron emission tomography, or Pet scans, to
explore 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 are also turned on by music.
"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 as they
experience 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.
Ira Glick, professor of psychiatry at 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 behaviour
there is a change in a molecule".
He added: "With this new technology, for the first time we can see
it." - Sapa-AP
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