According to this ground-breaking article, apparently there is this phenomenon
called "music" which can affect certain vaguely specified parts of the brain
to elicit various emotional responses, including "feel[ing] happy," "shivers
down the spine," and "chills." I must find out more about this so-called
"music."
np: 2 Lone Swordsmen - Stay Down
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quoted 41 lines Why music gives you 'eargasms'>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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