Why do we like Music
Why do we love music?
Everyone hums a song in their head. Music is still a subject that is still largely mystical, endowed with immense power, able to unite people and promote communication and expression of emotions.
In the animal world, however, what may seem like music to us humans is often a form of communication in every way (think birds).
Listening and producing music for in and of itself is a purely human characteristic, and the functions of its existence are not so clear.
Researchers have identified mechanisms and functions that help to understand why we love music and how it helps our species.
Neuroscience of music
The joy of listening to a song you love is the same as it feels with substance abuse or sex.
In one experiment (Blood and Zatore, 2001), a brain scan with PET was performed on participants to discover the mechanism by which music evokes such strong emotions.
It was found that the same areas involved in the reward/motivation system, emotion and physical activity were activated as those that responded to pleasurable stimuli such as food, sex, and drugs.
Regions include the ventral striatum, midbrain, amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex.
music
Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) was one of the most important and talented musicians in history. It is believed that part of his brilliance is due to the greater integration between the two hemispheres.
Hendrix, in fact, although he played “contrary” right-handed guitar, he was also bisexual in various daily activities.
Universal language
Although we recognize the cultural affiliation of all types of music (for example, Indian music is distinct and recognizable from
American country music), there are some basic mechanisms, such as Ekman’s Universal Expression of Feelings (1971), spontaneous and cohesive. would seem. all cultures.
In one study (Mehar et al., 2018), 14-second songs were played by participants from 60 different cultures.
The songs were also from cultures around the world, be they love songs, lullabies, etc., chosen at random by small communities of hunters, farmers and herders.
Participants were asked whether each song might be more appropriate for calming a young child, for dancing, for healing wounds, for communicating love, for mourning the deceased, for telling a story.
The results showed that the participants “guessed” the ceremony for which the native culture uses this melody.
This means that music represents a universal medium useful for a variety of social and psychological purposes, and is “saved”, transmitted and practiced intensely by natural selection.
Social work of music
In each city, the subdivision of urban subcultures is evident in the way they dress, speak, share values and norms, and in most cases it is all linked to a musical style – the nails and leather clothing identifying rockers.
Think about, or the crest and chaotic behavior of rogues, etc. Even nations have a hymn that is played in the most important ceremonies.
Anthropologist Edward Hagen and evolutionary psychologist Gregory Bryant (2003) hypothesized that human social organization, particularly the tendency to form cooperative alliances in the absence of kinship ties, would be based on music and dance.
Why love music
In his studio, musical synchronicity was manipulated to modify subjects’ perceptions of the quality of a piece. The results suggest that music quality is indeed related to perceptions of “intergroup affinity”.
In everyday life, it is clear that music plays a fundamental role in social interactions. Just think of dating situations, such as
In a nightclub or pub, where the music also becomes an “excuse” for forging new relationships, romantic or friendly.
Neurologist, neurophysiologist, neuropharmacologist, member of the French Society of Neurology, member of the Francophone Society of Neurophysiology and member of the New York Academy of Sciences.
How does music stimulate our brain?
How do Mozart or electric guitar riffs affect our memory?
For Pierre Lemarquis, music exists before language and survives in our brain. Born of emotions, it regulates our moods, develops our skills, strengthens social relationships and can even lead to orgasm!
Amateurs or professionals, no matter how old we are, we all have musical brains that only ask to help us throughout our existence. Let’s get to know it better and learn to cultivate it!
Certainly for “important” physical reasons:
Could there be a world without music? – but also because in order to play, conduct and listen you have to know how to combine sounds into a unit that goes beyond them! For reasons that include and go beyond scientific reason … “