Music: The Language of Emotion

Music can give rise to all kinds of feelings. It can serve to exaggerate the feelings already there, like sadness or happiness, or it can give rise to emotions all on its own. It can even create a special bond between people. But why does music sound so good?

It turns out, dopamine, the same "feel good" neurotransmitter associated with food, sleep, and sex, is released when we hear music. The happiness we feel when listening to music is called an "abstract reward"- nothing quantifiable happens to warrant the response, like munching on a bag a chips after weeks of diet, but we still feel happy. Happy music activates a part of the brain associated with motivation and reward, and dopamine is released in anticipation of a particularly emotional part of the song.

Okay, so I'm happy, I'm dancing, my brain is singing. But happiness isn't the only emotion. Music is like a language, a language that universally speaks to human emotion. Although it seems that most emotional relevance of music comes directly from experience, there is research that suggests that the way music makes us feel the emotions being portrayed has something to do with the neurons in our brains. The idea is that music activates mirror neurons, which typically deal with empathy and understanding the world around us by simulating emotions. So when you hear a sad song, you're feeling the sadness, your brain is simulating empathy.

Mirror Neurons Simulate Empathy 

Another theory suggests that the rhythms of the music and the sound waves actually drive oscillations in your neurons. This theory suggests that auditory stimulation causes neurons to sync up and fire at different rates, rates which are associated with different moods. The rhythms and sounds act similarly on everyone, which can coordinate thinking as well as behavior. There are songs the evoke emotional responses, as well as songs that can actually cause you to relax. (Where was this during AP tests??) Your mood moves to the sound of the music.

But most emotion you feel when listening to music probably has to do with your own experience. Just broke up? Tragic. We all have that playlist. Most people learned to associate major chords with happy feelings from a lullaby, and associate sadness with other chords based on experience. Some researchers suggest that the appeal for mood-congruent music is the same as the appeal for an empathetic friend. Sharing emotion, not being alone, can be a huge breath of relief for individuals suffering from heartbreak, or whatever interpersonal circumstance that made them so sad. Researchers found that the appeal for sad music was relatively decreased when the negative stimuli was non-interpersonal, like an uncontrollable accident, as opposed to interpersonal, like a heartbreak. There is actually evidence that suggests that musical ability is correlated with emotional capacity, meaning that musically inclined individuals are better at recognizing emotions and are more empathetic in general.

Music and Empathy Go Together

So, music is clearly pretty powerful. Those connected with music have a deeper understanding of human emotion and music can actually mirror empathy in your brain. Woah. I don't know about you, but I have a deeper appreciation for my many many emotional playlists. Thanks T-Swift.

Pictures-
http://jonlieffmd.com/blog/mirror-neurons
https://www.picgifs.com/clip-art/listening-to-music/clip-art-activities-listening-to-music-690092