Do you get goose bumps when you listen to music? You may have a special brain
Do you get goose bumps when you listen to music? You may have a special brain
Have you ever had the experience that a really good song is running and you suddenly get goose bumps? One of the most unforgettable moments that happened to me was when I walked the street to my college in my last semester and showed "I See Fire" by Ed Sheeran from "The Hobbit" in my run.
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Did you feel chills, a lump in your throat or maybe a tingling sensation on your neck? Then you may have a more unique brain than you think.
Alissa the Sarkissian, a research assistant at the Brain and Creativity Institute of the USC, has a unique reaction to the "Nude" song by Radiohead. She describes the experience as a synchronization of her breath with the melody, as a slowdown of her heartbeat and as a deepening of her consciousness for the song. It can feel the emotions contained in the music and its physiological reactions to these emotions.
Fascinated by these experiences decided to examine Matthew Sachs, a former Harvard student who is now studying psychology and neurosciences at the Brain and Creativity Institute of the USC, why some people get goose bumps. Sachs, a Sarkissian colleague, carried out a study with 20 student participants. Half stated that you feel goosebumps while listening to music, but the other half, however. He examined their brain activity, heart rate and skin conductivity while hearing three songs of their choice. Fascinated by these experiences decided to examine Matthew Sachs, a former Harvard student who is now studying psychology and neurosciences at the Brain and Creativity Institute of the USC, why some people get goose bumps. Sachs, a Sarkissian colleague, carried out a study with 20 student participants. Half stated that you feel goosebumps while listening to music, but the other half, however. He examined their brain activity, heart rate and skin conductivity while hearing three songs of their choice.
From his study, Sachs developed an equation: Pgänwebaut = CF (SC + ID + AP). In this equation, CF shows cognitive factors, SC denotes social and environmental context, ID stands for individual differences and AP refers to the acoustic properties of music. Pgoosebumps stands for the likelihood of getting goose bumps.
As Sachs explained to the magazine Neuroscience: "The idea behind it is that more fibers and a higher efficiency between two regions mean that processing between them is more efficient." The full study published in Oxford Academic suggests that those who feel goose bumps in music tend to feel emotions more intensely than others. Another factor to be taken into account is the triggering effect of music -associated memories, an aspect that Sachs could not control in his laboratory environment. Other factors such as powerful texts, pitch variations, harmony intervals and group singing also contribute to goose bumps.
Although only twenty participants were involved in the first study, Sachs now conducts more extensive studies and examines the various brain mechanisms that run when music causes reactions. Sachs is deeply interested in how a certain arrangement of notes in humans can cause such profound emotional reactions. Through his research, he hopes to understand the neurological foundations of these reactions and apply this knowledge to help treat patients with mental disorders.
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