Congratulations Sarah upon finding a scientific validation/justification for your high-$ high-end spending. I wonder if those findings apply to those "goosebumps on the back of my neck" as well? I get those only on rare occasion, when everything is sounding perfectly dialed-in & just right. I always wondered why I liked music so much - to the point of theoretically unjustifiable expenditure to support this habit? Thanks for the answers: now I wonder if those disaffected mates of misunderstood audiophiles will even consider this concrete evidence in support of this nebulous pursuit?
"Music and the Pleasure Zone" in today's Washington Post
In a short article in the Science Notebook section of The Washington Post today (Section A, p.14), we learn that "music can send chills down one's spine by activating the same parts of the brain that produce the pleasure from food, sex and drugs, according to new research. Anne J. Blood and Robert J. Zatorre of McGill Univ. in Montreal conducted brain scans on five female and five male students with at least eight years of musical training while they listened to selections of classical music they especially liked. Parts of the brain known to be involved in pleasure, emotion and arousal became activated when the subjects experienced 'chills,' the researchers reported. 'This is quite remarkable, because music is neither strictly necessary for biological survival or reproduction, nor is it a pharmacological substance,' the researchers wrote. 'The ability of music to induce such pleasure and its putative stimulation of endogenous reward systems suggest that, although music may not be imperative for survival of the human species, it may indeed be of significant benefit to our mental and physical well-being."
Like we didn't already know that!
I feel better about the thousands of dollars I've spent securing my continued well-being. If I don't do it, who will?
Like we didn't already know that!
I feel better about the thousands of dollars I've spent securing my continued well-being. If I don't do it, who will?
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