A few days ago, I found myself singing “In Remembrance” with the rest of U Choir. The sound was strong and emotional and, right at the end of the piece, we hit a great chord. At that moment, my spine shivered with a rewarding feeling. I had chills. This has happened to me so many times before, but why?
The Research
music.bermudastream.com
A 2011 study using these machines the brain revealed some interesting facts. Individuals listened to enjoyable music as researchers examined their brains’ using fMRI and PET scans. This study is incredibly detailed and careful. Participants were examined at the same time of the day, and women were tested while their menstrual cycles were at steady hormone levels. While there is still room for error, I believe that this study is quite reliable.
Scientific Mechanism
Here’s what they found: When listening to enjoyable music, the brain releases dopamine into our system, providing a pleasurable feeling. Interestingly enough, this response can occur with a variety of music types. Every response is specific to the individual who is listening. Other studies have proposed that somber music is more likely to release dopamine. This is interesting, especially considering the fact that chills make us feel good, rather than making us cry.
Is That It?
Question: Why do we get chills when we hear good music? Answer: Our brains release dopamine in response to a pleasurable experience. Is this enough? I think not. While we have the scientific mechanism in place, I still want to understand “why?” Our brains have evolved over time to become as effective as possible. So why did the “music chills” trait become so common? How is it evolutionarily advantageous?
feminiya.com
This question is, obviously, much more difficult to answer. We must look retrospectively and imagine why humans with this heightened sense rose above the rest. I would propose that a heightened sensitivity to music can also increase one’s interpersonal skills. In the early years of humanaity, song and dance were a way of communicating with others. Those who had a pleasurable response to music would be more likely to engage in the social activities surrounding the music, making them more likely to pass on their genes.
Still, we can not rule out other possibilities. Maybe the pathways that give us chills are the same ones that give us chills when we are watching scary movies. Perhaps it is the anticipation that comes along with both situations that provides the chilling effect. Hey, maybe it’s all a coincidence anyway, chance does some crazy things.
Hey Somil! This study took personal music tastes into account. Participants brought in music that made them experience chills in order to have effective brain scans. You are definitely correct, giving everyone the same music would not provide helpful evidence, as people have different taste in music. In your case, you would bring in Lorde’s Pure Heroine (which I LOVE, by the way) and listen to that while in the fMRI machine.
I’m also interested in the whole “memories and music” idea. I’ve read a lot of articles about how we relate our sensory experiences to positive (and negative) memories. I believe that smell is the strongest in terms of connection. I think a blog post on the relationship between memory and music would be fantastic!
Hey Julia! I looked into the article a little more, and here’s what I’m thinking:
1. When it comes to chills from illness, the body is “producing heat when it feels cold.” In other words, your internal body temperature is too high, making the air around you feel cold. The “muscle contractions” you spoke of are the body’s way of warming up. I believe this is separate from the music chills.
2. As a PSYCH student, here is my guess at the relationship between fear and music chills. The “sympathetic nervous system” controls our chemical responses which arouse our systems. Basically, when our body encounters stimuli (a loud noise, a bright light) it “wakes up” our body using chemicals. This puts us in a heightened state of awareness. So, when something scares us, our body releases chemicals which make us more situationally aware. This can include chills. As for music, our body is responding to a pleasurable experience. This also stimulates the sympathetic nervous system. As both experiences are closely connected, chills can be experienced in both. Hope this helps 🙂
I found this to be a really relatable and fascinating study. Music more often than not gives me the chills. I love listening to music and find my mood to always be affected by different types of songs in dissimilar ways. https://soundcloud.com is a website where you can listen to any song you want for free with out advertisements. This website provides you with playlists that are made according to genre.
Personally, this article struck out to me because I often get chills to certain moving songs, while my friends don’t experience the same sort of reaction. Just as you said in the blog, the individual gets chills from many different types of music. It probably pertains to the emotion the individual is feeling at that moment and the effect the song has on them. Music can also bring people together, which I think is an amazing ability. Check out this article from the Penn State Radio station about how music brought a family together.
While this is an interesting study, I wish there was a way to compare the effect of music the participants enjoyed listening to vs. music they did not enjoy. My problem with this experiment is that everyone has different music tastes, and thus responded differently to the same songs. Personally, I know that I am probably releasing a lot more dopamine when I listen to Lorde than when I listen to Maroon 5.
In addition, I would like to see the dopamine levels of a person listening to a song that they can strongly associate with a positive memory. There are some songs that I enjoy because I remember a previous moment when I was doing something I enjoyed while listening to that song. For example, I listened to Demons by Imagine Dragons the first time I drove my car. Now, whenever I hear that song, I remember holding the wheel for the first time.
This scientific explanation relates to pleasure. However, people experience chills for other reasons such as fear and disgust. Is dopamine also to blame in this instance? Also, chills is most often experienced when one has a fever. When one has a fever, “chills are caused by rapid muscle contraction and relaxation.” (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003091.htm) How is it that the same phenomenon could be caused by two different things? Check it out and let me know!
This is an awesome post! I couldn’t imagine going one day without listening to music. I sometimes wonder how people can walk to class throughout the day and not listen to music! I attended Tomorrow World in Atlanta GA last year and it was the best experience of my life. Talk about Chills!