According to one research, if music gives you goosebumps your brain might be different and special in some way.
We could hear many people that have experienced a similar feeling when listening to the songs they love. It doesn’t matter what type of tune you prefer, there is always something that can make your arm hairs stand on end.
Last year experiment by Matthew Sachs, a former undergraduate at Harvard, was done to determine how these feelings are triggered.
Total of 20 students participated in the tests and 10 of those said that they did notice the music is causing those feelings for them. Other 10 participants didn’t feel anything when the tune was played. Both groups underwent brain scans to see what are the differences if there is any.
It was concluded that students that did feel it had slightly altered brain structure when compared to those that didn’t respond in a similar matter when the music was playing.
Scans pointed that higher number of fibers is connecting auditory cortex and brain segments that are in charge of processing emotions. As a result, it was possible to develop a better communication between these two parts.
Findings and conclusions that were delivered by Matthew Sachs were published on Oxford Academic, and he was also quoted by Neuroscience:
The idea being that more fibers and increased efficiency between two regions means that you have more efficient processing between them.
The results indicate that people that are influenced by music in such manner can possibly have more intense and powerful emotions.
One of the things that we also need to add is the fact that some of the songs can associate us with certain memories. These situations can’t be controlled by any means during the experiment and in the laboratory.
Even this research was done on a limited number of participants, it was reported that Sachs is working further to collect additional data about body and brain reactions to music.
One of the main goals of his work is to find a connection between this type of stimulation and feelings. As a result, some of these methods could be used for the treatment of psychological disorders.
Depression causes an inability to experience pleasure of everyday things.
You could use music with a therapist to explore feelings.
