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Do you get goosebumps when you listen to music? You may have a special brain
Have you ever had the experience of listening to a really good song and suddenly giving you goosebumps? One of the most memorable moments that happened to me was when I was walking down the street to my college in my final semester and Ed Sheeran's "I See Fire" from The Hobbit popped up in my playthrough. Play this: Have you felt chills, a lump in your throat, or perhaps a tingling sensation in the back of your neck? Then you may have a more unique brain than you think. Alissa Der Sarkissian, a research associate at USC's Brain and Creativity Institute, has a unique response to...
Do you get goosebumps when you listen to music? You may have a special brain
Have you ever had the experience of listening to a really good song and suddenly giving you goosebumps? One of the most memorable moments that happened to me was when I was walking down the street to my college in my final semester and Ed Sheeran's "I See Fire" from The Hobbit popped up in my playthrough.
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Have you felt chills, a lump in your throat, or perhaps a tingling sensation in your neck? Then you may have a more unique brain than you think.
Alissa Der Sarkissian, a research associate at USC's Brain and Creativity Institute, has a unique reaction to the song "Nude" by Radiohead. She describes the experience as synchronizing her breathing with the melody, slowing her heartbeat, and deepening her awareness of the song. She can specifically feel the emotions contained in the music and her physiological reactions to these emotions.
Intrigued by these experiences, Matthew Sachs, a former Harvard student who now studies psychology and neuroscience at USC's Brain and Creativity Institute, decided to investigate why some people get goosebumps from music. Sachs, a colleague of Sarkissian, conducted a study with 20 student participants. Half said they felt goosebumps when listening to music, while the other half said they didn't. He examined their brain activity, heart rate and skin conductance while they listened to three songs of their choice.
Intrigued by these experiences, Matthew Sachs, a former Harvard student who now studies psychology and neuroscience at USC's Brain and Creativity Institute, decided to investigate why some people get goosebumps from music. Sachs, a colleague of Sarkissian, conducted a study with 20 student participants. Half said they felt goosebumps when listening to music, while the other half said they didn't. He examined their brain activity, heart rate and skin conductance while they listened to three songs of their choice.
From his study, Sachs developed an equation: Pgoosebumps = CF (Sc + Id + Ap). In this equation, CF represents cognitive factors, Sc denotes the social and environmental context, Id represents individual differences, and Ap denotes the acoustic properties of music. Pgoosebumps represents the probability of getting goosebumps.
As Sachs explained to the journal Neuroscience, "The idea is that more fibers and greater efficiency between two regions means that processing between them is more efficient." The full study, published in Oxford Academic, suggests that those who experience goosebumps when listening to music tend to feel emotions more intensely than others. Another factor to consider is the triggering effect of music-associated memories, an aspect that Sachs could not control in his laboratory setting. Other factors like powerful lyrics, pitch variations, harmony intervals, and group singing also contribute to goosebumps.
Although the first study only involved twenty participants, Sachs is now conducting more extensive research, examining the different brain mechanisms that occur when music elicits responses. Sachs is deeply interested in how a particular arrangement of notes can evoke such profound emotional responses in people. Through his research, he hopes to understand the neurological basis of these reactions and apply this knowledge to help treat patients with mental disorders.
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