Stafon Koelsch, an employee of the Free University in Berlin, believes that while listening to music, a person experiences a variety of emotions. Some of them are similar to everyday ones, while others cause the activation of various neurological processes in the body.
Koelsch published a review in Nature Neuroscience comparing 150 studies of brain activity while listening to music. At the moment of enjoying music, various parts of the brain are activated, including those associated with emotions. These are the amygdala or tonsil, hippocampus and nucleus accumbens.
The amygdala is a cluster of nerve cells deep in the cerebral hemispheres. The activation of this department occurs at the moment when a person experiences a feeling of fear. However, the amygdala can perform much more complex functions. According to scientists, this area may regulate the process of avoiding or "approaching" an emotional stimulus. At the time when a person listens to music, the large lateral part of the amygdala is activated, which can determine how positive or negative the melody sounds at the moment. If the music is not sad, the upper part of the amygdala is activated, as well as its connections with the thalamus and the nucleus accumbens. Koelsh believes that it is this process that can force a person to continue listening to music.
The nucleus accumbens is also called the pleasure center. In most studies, the activation of this department is traced at the moment of listening to a pleasant melody. If you observe the activity of the nucleus accumbens, it becomes possible to predict the moment of climax in a musical composition, during which trembling and "goose bumps" on the skin can act as typical human reactions.
The hippocampus is activated when a person listens to music with different emotional overtones. A change in activity can be traced at the moment of replacing a pleasant melody with an unpleasant one. Thanks to this site, the regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary system is carried out, which helps the brain influence most of the hormones in the body. This circumstance explains the phenomenon of a decrease in the level of the stress hormone (cortisol) while a person is listening to a pleasant melody.
In addition, music can cause an involuntary smile or, on the contrary, a sad expression. Also, there is an expansion and contraction of the pupils, a change in the electrical conductivity of the skin.
Koelsch notes that many of the emotions that people experience in everyday life are still inaccessible to provocation through music. These can be called, for example, feelings of guilt or shame. But to be amazed when listening to the composition – quite real.
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