Scientists show brain's own opioids involved in musical pleasure
Originally shared by Ward Plunet
Scientists show brain's own opioids involved in musical pleasure
The same brain-chemical system that mediates feelings of pleasure from sex, recreational drugs, and food is also critical to experiencing musical pleasure, according to a study by McGill University researchers published today in the Nature journal Scientific Reports. "This is the first demonstration that the brain's own opioids are directly involved in musical pleasure," says cognitive psychologist Daniel Levitin, senior author of the paper. While previous work by Levitin's lab and others had used neuroimaging to map areas of the brain that are active during moments of musical pleasure, scientists were able only to infer the involvement of the opioid system. In the new study, Levitin's team at McGill selectively and temporarily blocked opioids in the brain using naltrexone, a widely prescribed drug for treating addiction disorders. The researchers then measured participants' responses to music, and found that even the participants' favorite songs no longer elicited feelings of pleasure. "The findings, themselves, were what we hypothesized," Levitin says. "But the anecdotes—the impressions our participants shared with us after the experiment—were fascinating. One said: 'I know this is my favorite song but it doesn't feel like it usually does.' Another: 'It sounds pretty, but it's not doing anything for me.'"
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-02-scientists-brain-opioids-involved-musical.html#jCp
Scientists show brain's own opioids involved in musical pleasure
The same brain-chemical system that mediates feelings of pleasure from sex, recreational drugs, and food is also critical to experiencing musical pleasure, according to a study by McGill University researchers published today in the Nature journal Scientific Reports. "This is the first demonstration that the brain's own opioids are directly involved in musical pleasure," says cognitive psychologist Daniel Levitin, senior author of the paper. While previous work by Levitin's lab and others had used neuroimaging to map areas of the brain that are active during moments of musical pleasure, scientists were able only to infer the involvement of the opioid system. In the new study, Levitin's team at McGill selectively and temporarily blocked opioids in the brain using naltrexone, a widely prescribed drug for treating addiction disorders. The researchers then measured participants' responses to music, and found that even the participants' favorite songs no longer elicited feelings of pleasure. "The findings, themselves, were what we hypothesized," Levitin says. "But the anecdotes—the impressions our participants shared with us after the experiment—were fascinating. One said: 'I know this is my favorite song but it doesn't feel like it usually does.' Another: 'It sounds pretty, but it's not doing anything for me.'"
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-02-scientists-brain-opioids-involved-musical.html#jCp
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