Salimpoor, V., Benovoy, M., Larcher, K., Dagher, A., and Zatorre, R.J. (2011). Anatomically Distinct Dopamine Release during Anticipation and Experience of Peak Emotion to Music. Nature Neuroscience.
Music, an abstract stimulus, can arouse feelings of euphoria and craving, similar to tangible rewards that involve the striatal dopaminergic system. Using the neurochemical specificity of [11C]raclopride positron emission tomography (PET) scanning, combined with psychophysiological measures of autonomic nervous system activity, we provide direct evidence for endogenous dopamine release in the striatum at peak emotional arousal during music listening. To examine the timecourse of dopamine release we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with the same stimuli and listeners, and found a functional dissociation: the caudate is more involved during the anticipation, and the nucleus accumbens during the experience of peak emotional responses to music. These results provide clear evidence that intense pleasure in response to music can lead to dopamine release in the striatal system. Importantly, the anticipation of an abstract reward can result in dopamine release within an anatomical pathway distinct from that associated with the peak pleasure itself. These findings help to explain why music is of such high value across all human societies.
Composer/Artist |
Title |
Genre |
| Barber ** Beethoven ** Beethoven Berlioz Buxtehude Chopin Copland Debussy ** Digitalism Alizadeh Dvorak Rachmaninoff Rachmaninoff Shostakovich Tchaikovsky Vivaldi Wagner Lamb Yann Tiersen Wendy Carlos Ennio Morricone Hans Zimmer Grainger The Assembly Rodrigo Y Gabriela Rodrigo y Gabriela Explosions in the Sky ** Joe Pass Godspeed You! Black Emperor Transiberian Orchestra Infected Mushroom Infected Mushroom Infected Mushroom Infected Mushroom Led Zeppelin Piazzolla Rodriguez Tiesto ** Tiesto Tiesto |
Adagio for Strings 9th Symphony - Mov. 2 Piano Sonata No. 17 in D Minor ("The Tempest") Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14 - Mov. 4 Toccata in G Mazurka in A Minor Op. 17 Appalachian Spring Suite Clair de Lune Echoes Nahoft and Faroud New World Symphony Morceaux de Fantaisie, No. 2, Prelude in C# Minor Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini 11th Symphony - Mov. 2 Swan Lake Four Seasons - Spring Lohengrin Prelude to act 1 Angelica Le Moulin Symphony No. 9 - Mov. 2 L'Arena Hummel gets the Rockets Rutherford Park Poachers Cheris / Fading Light Diablo Rojo Tamacun First Breath After Coma Misty Storm Nutcracker Suite Suliman Heavyweight Special place Vicious Delicious Moby Dick Libertango La Cumparsita Adagio for Strings Nyana Olympic Flame |
Classical Classical Classical Classical Classical Classical Classical Classical Electronic World Classical Classical Classical Classical Classical Classical Classical Electronic Film Score (Amelie Poulin) Film Score (Clockwork Orange) Film Score (Kill Bill) Film Score (The Rock) Folk Folk Guitar - Flamenco Guitar - Flamenco Instrumental Post-Rock Jazz/Blues Post-Rock Progressive Rock Psychedelic Rock Psychedelic Rock Psychedelic Trance Psychedelic Trance Rock Tango Tango Trance Trance Trance |
Salimpoor, V., Benovoy, M., Longo, G., Cooperstock, J.R., and Zatorre, R.J. (2009). The Rewarding Aspects of Music Listening are Related to Degree of Emotional Arousal, PLoS ONE, 4(10): e7487.
Listening to music is amongst the most rewarding experiences for humans. Music has no functional resemblance to other rewarding stimuli, and has no demonstrated biological value, yet individuals continue listening to music for pleasure. It has been suggested that the pleasurable aspects of music listening are related to a change in emotional arousal, although this link has not been directly investigated. In this study, using methods of high temporal sensitivity we investigated whether there is a systematic relationship between dynamic increases in pleasure states and physiological indicators of emotional arousal, including changes in heart rate, respiration, electrodermal activity, body temperature, and blood volume pulse. Twenty-six participants listened to self-selected intensely pleasurable music and “neutral” music that was individually selected for them based on low pleasure ratings they provided on other participants' music. The “chills” phenomenon was used to index intensely pleasurable responses to music. During music listening, continuous real-time recordings of subjective pleasure states and simultaneous recordings of sympathetic nervous system activity, an objective measure of emotional arousal, were obtained. Results revealed a strong positive correlation between ratings of pleasure and emotional arousal. Importantly, a dissociation was revealed as individuals who did not experience pleasure also showed no significant increases in emotional arousal. These results have broader implications by demonstrating that strongly felt emotions could be rewarding in themselves in the absence of a physically tangible reward or a specific functional goal.
Blood, A.J., Zatorre, R.J., Bermudez, P., and Evans, A.C. (1999) Emotional responses to pleasant and unpleasant music correlate with activity in paralimbic brain regions. Nature Neuroscience, 2, 382-387.
Neural correlates of the often-powerful emotional responses to music are poorly understood. Here we used positron emission tomography to examine cerebral blood flow (CBF) changes related to affective responses to music. Ten volunteers were scanned while listening to six versions of a novel musical passage varying systematically in degree of dissonance. Reciprocal CBF covariations were observed in several distinct paralimbic and neocortical regions as a function of dissonance and of perceived pleasantness/unpleasantness. The findings suggest that music may recruit neural mechanisms similar to those previously associated with pleasant/unpleasant emotional states, but different from those underlying other components of music perception, and other emotions such as fear.
| Major triads |
| Dominant 7th |
| Ninth |
| Eleventh |
| Thirteenth |
| Thirteenth Flat |
| Noise |
Blood, A.J. & Zatorre, R.J. (2001) Intensely pleasurable responses to music correlate with activity in brain regions implicated with reward and emotion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 98, 11818-11823.
We used positron emission tomography to study neural mechanisms underlying intensely pleasant emotional responses to music. Cerebral blood flow changes were measured in response to subject-selected music that elicited the highly pleasurable experience of "shivers-down-the-spine" or "chills". Subjective reports of chills were accompanied by changes in heart rate, electromyogram, and respiration. As intensity of these chills increased, cerebral blood flow increases and decreases were observed in brain regions thought to be involved in reward/motivation, emotion, and arousal, including ventral striatum, midbrain, amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, and ventral medial prefrontal cortex. These brain structures are known to be active in response to other euphoria-inducing stimuli, such as food, sex, and drugs of abuse. This finding links music with biologically relevant, survival-related stimuli via their common recruitment of brain circuitry involved in pleasure and reward.
