Have you ever heard a song somewhere that connected you to some special moment in your life? Or maybe it’s not about specific topics, but you’re one of those people who you’re the type of person who gets goosebumps with some types of music.
If you are one of the latter, you would have been a good candidate to participate in the study proposed by a Harvard student who wanted to discover what happens in our brain when we feel chills listening to a piece of music. But what exactly did he discover? We tell you.
Does music give you goosebumps?
When Matthew Sachs, a former student at Harvard University, decided to study the curiosity that this observation aroused in him, he launched an investigation through which he intended to draw conclusions about the origin of the reaction of certain people when music gives them goose bumps.
To do this, he examined 20 students, 10 of whom admitted to feeling shivers when they heard music. admitted noticing shivers when they were exposed to the music and 10 of them said they did not notice anything. and 10 others said they did not perceive anything different at those times. He performed scans of the brain of each and every one of them to identify which areas were especially activated in that situation, in order to understand what was different from one person to another.
The results obtained
The conclusions reached were categorical, since Sachs observed a series of structural differences between brains that would explain the difference in reaction between those to whom the music gives goose bumps and those who do not feel anything.
Through this study it was possible to conclude that those people who had established a type of emotional attachment with musicThe study concluded that those people who had established a type of emotional attachment to music tended to have a higher density of connecting fibers between their auditory cortex and the brain areas responsible for processing emotions. In this way, these two parts can communicate better.
But what would this discovery mean? That what may at first be evidenced by the simple detail that music gives you goose bumps is a sign of your greater sensitivity to perceive emotionsand live them with much more intensity and strength than other types of people. That is, not only are you sensitive to what music conveys to you, but your very nature is prone to feel everything much more intensely than average.
Music evokes many emotions in us.
Source:
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Useful conclusions moving forward
Although the study was certainly somewhat limited, having a sample in which only 20 people were studied, the intention is to be able to expand this research.
In this way, it would be possible to go deeper into the possible utilities that the new conclusions reached would offer, since it would mean improvements in certain types of psychological therapies such as music therapy.a.
Using music to influence our emotions
Another of the considerations that would be taken into account when studying this phenomenon further is the innate capacity that people have to establish associations between our most intimate emotions and our most intimate emotions. establish associations between our most intimate emotions and the facts of life. that take place around us.
For example, when something happens that moves us in one way or another, such as receiving sad news while we are watching a movie, surely when we watch it again in the future we will unconsciously associate the sadness of that moment.
In the same way, when we listen to a song and we are feeling something very intense when we are with a person we like, we will being with a person we like, or we share a passionate moment while it is playing, it is almost certain that when in another moment we listen to that same melody, it will make us remember the sensations experienced with that special person.
This fact, although it is something that happens naturally, could also be used to pursue a purpose, such as resorting to this type of mechanism (by which it is possible to influence the emotions of a person through exposure to a song) in certain treatments to improve the quality of life of certain people who are going through emotionally delicate moments.