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Click through the gallery to see some of the biggest performers coming to the Alamo City.
Click through the gallery to see some of the biggest performers coming to the Alamo City.
A study published in the academic journal Scientific Reports, led by Bay Area neuroscientist and “This Is Your Brain on Music” author Daniel Levitin, posits that a person’s brain processes their favorite songs in the same manner as it would sex, drugs, and good food.
The study, co-authored by McGill University’s Mona Lisa Chanda and Adiel Mallik, gathered subjects over two days in a double-blind study, and instructed them to bring to the lab “two music recordings that reliably produced intense feelings, including but not limited to the sensation of chills.” Participants picked songs as varied as Santana’s “Primavera,” David Guetta and Nicki Minaj’s “Turn Me On,” and Mozart’s “Overture: The Marriage of Figaro.”
The researchers then divided subjects into two groups — one that took an opioid blocked called naltrexone, and the other that took a placebo — and observed how they took in hearing their favorite songs. The study gathered evidence in two ways: by asking the subject questions about how they were enjoying the music, and by measuring their muscle movements.
A new study found that those who attended “habitual music engagements” had the highest “subjective well-being.” Translation? Going to a lot of concerts means a happier life.
As they found, those on the opioid blocker enjoyed the their favorite music significantly less than those on the placebo, leading Levitin to conclude that the human brain receives feelings of pleasure from music in the same manner as it would from drugs.
“We conclude that endogenous opioids are critical to experiencing both positive and negative emotions in music,” the authors wrote, “and that music uses the same reward pathways as food, drug and sexual pleasure.”
Read the study in full here.
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