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crashinglybeautiful: (via: uncertaintimes, silicon, revolutionnaire, bellami & fuckyeahnervoussystem)

We do not possess a music “center” that processes all musical input. Our brains are programmed to comprehend and enjoy music from a variety of regions that vary from individual to individual.

“Researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute scanned musicians’ brains and found that when they experienced “chills” while listening to stirring passages of music, the same pleasure centers in the brain were active that are normally active when people engage in other rewarding activities such as eating chocolate and having sex. This might explain why, for example, Americans spend more each year on music than on prescription drugs.

[…] listening to music activates many particular brain regions in a certain order: “first, the auditory cortex for initial processing of the components of the sound. Then the frontal regions…previously identified as being involved in processing musical structure and expectations. Finally, a network of regions — the mesolimbic system — involved in arousal, pleasure, and the transmission of opioids and the production of dopamine, culminating in activation in the nucleus accumbens.” Levitin adds that “the rewarding and reinforcing aspects of listening to music seem, then, to be mediated by increasing dopamine levels in the nucleus accumbens (2).” These findings provide insight into how music can be a profoundly powerful force on our emotions.”

Music in the Brain: The Mysterious Power of Music[

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