Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Study shows dopamine plays a role in musical pleasure
Medical Express, via Phys.org ^ | January 22, 2019 | Bob Yirka , Medical Xpress

Posted on 01/22/2019 3:06:31 PM PST by ETL

An international team of researchers has found evidence of dopamine in the brain playing a role in the pleasure people feel when they listen to music. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes experiments they carried out with volunteers who were given a dopamine precursor or antagonist and what they found.

People are known to experience a range of emotions when listening to music, from annoyance to euphoria. And while researchers have long believed that at least some of the people derive from listening to music is tied to an increase in brain levels, the idea had never been tested until now. In this new effort, the researchers gave volunteers drugs that increased or decreased their dopamine levels and then administered various tests to gauge whether doing so caused a change in the experience of musical pleasure.

In the study, 27 volunteers were given either , a dopamine precursor that raises levels of the neurotransmitter in the brain, or risperidone which has the opposite effect. Some were also given a placebo. Over the course of three separate sessions (on different days), the volunteers were asked to listen to music for a period of 20 minutes. Some of the songs were chosen by the experimenters and others were chosen by the volunteers themselves. Pleasure responses were measured via a skin sensor that measured electrodermal activity (goosebumps) and through questionnaires. They also asked each of the volunteers if they would be willing to buy the songs they were listening to, and if so, how much they would be willing to pay for them.

The researchers found that those volunteers who received levodopa reported experiencing more pleasure while listening to music than did the placebo group. They were also more willing to buy the music and to pay more for it. Conversely, those given risperidone reported experiencing less pleasure and were less willing to pay for the music.

The researchers suggest their findings indicate that dopamine plays a major role in the pleasure sensations that people experience from listening to music. They further suggest that their experiments indicate that enjoyment of can be regulated by the use of drugs that impact dopamine levels.


Explore further
Music evokes powerful positive emotions through personal memories



TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Health/Medicine; Science
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041 next last
To: DoodleBob

Yeah I’d need a dopamine boost to listen to any of that.


21 posted on 01/22/2019 3:46:23 PM PST by bluejean (I'm becoming a cranky old person. It really annoys me.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: bobby.223

“A couple of doobies and ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ worked for me back in the day..”

Oh hell yeah. That and “Meddle”.


22 posted on 01/22/2019 3:48:29 PM PST by bluejean (I'm becoming a cranky old person. It really annoys me.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Openurmind

I see you like to listen to lunatic drug addicts. :). Lol.


23 posted on 01/22/2019 3:49:16 PM PST by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: DoodleBob

“Dear Sirs:

I meant to write “Clapton is good.”
I hope I didn’t cause any confusion.

An urchin
London”

HA HA HAh ha ha


24 posted on 01/22/2019 3:49:44 PM PST by bluejean (I'm becoming a cranky old person. It really annoys me.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: ETL

The surprising finding would have been no effect - both drugs same as placebo.


25 posted on 01/22/2019 3:51:14 PM PST by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Sirius Lee

“Chopinine”

And I thought I was the only classical music buff on FR.

If I had Chopin’s talent, my piano would be surrounded by beautiful women, too.

;^)


26 posted on 01/22/2019 3:52:28 PM PST by elcid1970 (My gun safe is saying, "Room for one more, honey!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: HangnJudge

“Careful about giving Sinemet(L-Dopa) to normal volunteers
It drives compulsive, delusional behavior, and hallucinations”

Yes. And risperidone could have negative effects.

But I think for l-dopa it happens under chronic use. It takes time to build up.

I’d be more worried about acute effects with risperidone.


27 posted on 01/22/2019 3:56:17 PM PST by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: DoodleBob

“dopamine in the brain playing a role in the pleasure people feel when they listen to music”

Duh! They should have saved the money for this “study”-and just asked us who are fans of psychedelic and heavy music how it has always worked-open a beer, light up a joint crank up the stereo with Pink Floyd, Cream, Led Zeppelin, etc, have a drink take a toke, lie on the floor, get into the music and feel; pleasure-repeat as desired.

Maybe they needed to use the L-dopamine to bring the human lab rats pleasure because that playlist totally sucks...


28 posted on 01/22/2019 3:59:50 PM PST by Texan5 ("You've got to saddle up your boys, you've got to draw a hard line"...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: gathersnomoss

‘Zat you Joycelyn?


29 posted on 01/22/2019 4:01:56 PM PST by Drumbo ("Democracy can withstand anything except democrats." - Robert A. Heinlein)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: elcid1970

I’ve always loved classical music especially the romantic period. People that love classical music must have a different neurochemistry and circuitry than most of the population.


30 posted on 01/22/2019 4:15:57 PM PST by grumpygresh (Tout ou rien. Is this the Rubicon year?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: ETL

So why did the audience riot and tear up the seats at the Paris premiere of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring? What is the explanation?


31 posted on 01/22/2019 4:20:15 PM PST by Hartmann
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ETL

And what type music is it that causes this? I don’t need drugs to enjoy Mozart, Bach, Verdi or Wagner. But then I also like QUEEN, BLONDIE and BOB WILLS, and Cab Calloway.


32 posted on 01/22/2019 4:27:12 PM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

Where can I get some?


33 posted on 01/22/2019 4:38:35 PM PST by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: ifinnegan

I like it all but Gangsta Rap, But I’m from the 60’s, not many bands were sober... Lol


34 posted on 01/22/2019 4:43:38 PM PST by Openurmind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

35 posted on 01/22/2019 4:47:40 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: ETL

As a nutritionist, an audiophile, and a musician, I classify this under:

Zero Surprise.


36 posted on 01/22/2019 5:49:27 PM PST by YogicCowboy ("I am not entirely on anyone's side, because no one is entirely on mine." - J. R. R. Tolkien)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Steely Tom

Eric K is known for his song - Lai-laa


37 posted on 01/22/2019 5:52:45 PM PST by George from New England (escaped CT in 2006, now living north of Tampa)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: grumpygresh

From 5 years old was taught classical music on piano. Then got into the Beatles, the Stones, Cream and all that. You are right we are different how we perceive and interpret.


38 posted on 01/22/2019 7:41:45 PM PST by MikelTackNailer (NRT still kicking.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

Dunno dopamine, but years ago it was attributed to an endorphin release. Is that the same thing?

I understand that some jam bands used to rehearse material that had been known to give audience and band members that musical high. I’ve felt it a few times. Once at an Allman Bros encore of One Way Put at RFK with the Dead, and another time during a rehearsal, the sound msn caught it on tape but the replay didn’t repeat the experience. Maybe it has something to do with physical sound waves and the inner ear.


39 posted on 01/22/2019 8:53:49 PM PST by Clutch Martin (The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed it wright.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: ETL; AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ...

40 posted on 01/22/2019 11:08:48 PM PST by SunkenCiv (and btw -- https://www.gofundme.com/for-rotator-cuff-repair-surgery)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson