Research entitled "The Rewarding Aspects of Music Listening Are Related to Degree of Emotional Arousal" published on October 16, 2009 by Valorie N. Salimpoor1,2,3,4*, Mitchel Benovoy3,5, Gregory Longo2, Jeremy R. Cooperstock3,5, Robert J. Zatorre1,2,3,4 (1. Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 2. Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 3. Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Music Media and Technology, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 4. International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 5. Centre for Intelligent Machines, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada) has connected the "feeling" people experience listening to music with the dopamine response system in the brain.
The researchers found that the physiological and psychological response to music was very similar to that in cocaine addiction and may be mediated by the same parts of the brain and the same chemistries.
From the time that the first caveman beat a hollow log with two sticks and observed the response of his tribal group, musicians have intuitively known the power that music has to manipulate other people. Beethoven and Lady Ga Ga are equally emotional manipulators. This statement does not imply a direct understanding of the psychology or chemistry on the part of the "artist." The multiple rearrangement of music prior to performance for small audiences in the past and today is the perfecting ground that produces the needed emotional response that guides the listener to buy that music.
The study measured both physiological and psychological responses.
"Emotional arousal was assessed through psychophysiological measurements of galvanic skin response (GSR), temperature, heart rate, blood volume pulse (BVP) amplitude, and respiration rate. Pleasure states were continuously obtained through subjective ratings of neutral, low pleasure, and high pleasure using a button box. Chills were also indicated through button presses."
Some of the more interesting findings from the research are:
These results have broader implications by demonstrating that strongly felt emotions could be
rewarding in themselves in the absence of a physically tangible reward or a specific functional goal,
The conundrum lies in the fact that there are no direct functional similarities between music and other pleasure-producing stimuli: it has no clearly established biological value (cf., food, love, and sex), no tangible basis (cf., pharmacological drugs and monetary rewards), and no known addictive properties (cf gambling and nicotine). Despite this, music is consistently ranked amongst the top ten things that individuals find highly pleasurable .... ,
There were no restrictions to the genre of music that could be provided. This was done to increase the ecological validity of our findings and to ensure that any observed effects were not due to a specific genre of music,
Our data revealed a strong positive association between subjective ratings of pleasure and autonomic nervous system arousal,
Data showed significant positive correlations between subjectively reported pleasure states and
objectively measured increases in autonomic nervous system activity for all physiological measures.
The research indicates no "addictive" quality in music, however the perpetual push by studios for new material and the "need" for musicians and writers to create new music may indicate a type of addiction unknown to date. This "addiction" may also be indicated by the response of the purchasing public to the next "new release" of emotion and/or music. There have been several "addiction treatment" facilities that promised distraught parents to relieve their teenager's "addiction to MTV."
Whatever the true nature of the beast, people are emotionally affected by music.
The music industry, advertising, and politics have made use of your emotional response to music and manipulated your buying and voting by using music for eons. Music is used so adroitly to manipulate the consumer that the public does not even have a notion of being used like a tool.
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0007487
The free access research report has a literal infinity of references that supports their conclusions.
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