Music & Dopamine

Here is one of many articles coming out on a new study (emanating from McGill University where a lot of the work behind This Is Your Brain On Music was done) showing that listening to music releases dopamine.

Whether it's the Beatles or Beethoven, people like music for the same reason they like eating or having sex: It makes the brain release a chemical that gives pleasure, a new study says. The brain substance is involved both in anticipating a particularly thrilling musical moment and in feeling the rush from it, researchers found. . . 

. . .The tie to dopamine helps explain why music is so widely popular across cultures. . . .

. . .The study used only instrumental music, showing that voices aren't necessary to produce the dopamine response. . . 

. . . Dopamine surged in one part of the striatum during the 15 seconds leading up to a thrilling moment, and a different part when that musical highlight finally arrived. Zatorre said that makes sense: The area linked to anticipation connects with parts of the brain involved with making predictions and responding to the environment, while the area reacting to the peak moment itself is linked to the brain's limbic system, which is involved in emotion. . . 

. . .While experts had indirect indications that music taps into the dopamine system, he said, the new work "really nails it." . . . 

Update: for more on this McGill study see here and here and here.