Music and Neurodivergency

Music has always been a major part of my life. I grew up watching music videos and listening to CDs my parents would put on to try to get me to stop crying and go to sleep. As most people who know me also know, I am probably the biggest Beatles fan in all of Montclair. I know every song, every little fact about the band, their solo careers- EVERYTHING. This has surprisingly happened with a ton of other bands like Green Day, Jamiroquai, They Might Be Giants, and most recently, Radiohead. It took me until March of this year to figure out the reason why I would get so blindly obsessed with bands: I'm autistic. These deep dives into a band were all hyperfixations, the term used exclusively for autistic people as well as people with ADHD to describe an extreme obsession with something. Two of the bands that I mentioned (The Beatles and They Might Be Giants), have gone on to become special interests, which are autistic-exclusive, long-term hyperfixations. I have never lost interest in those bands, and likely never will.

My Beatles shrine in my bedroom! Each separate shelf has items from different periods in the Beatles' career- the second from the bottom is 1963-1965, next up is 66-68, and top is 68 to the breakup! I also have a large collection of Beatles/Beatles solo career vinyls in my living room.

Now, nearly all of my hyperfixations over the past 5 or so years have been about bands. Some lasting years like the Beatles, and others lasting mere days (rest in peace my Aphex Twin hyperfixation... not even 2 days). To add on to that, when I told the neuropsychologist who diagnosed me that I did like the Beatles, she mentioned that a large amount of people who she diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD for short, also have/had a hyperfixation for the band. This got me very interested in if there is a reason why people like me can get so easily attached to music in specific. This has lead me down the rabbit hole of researching neurodivergency and music's connection, as well as thinking back on other friends of mine who may experience hyperfixations who have had similar experiences to mine.

Neurodivergency is a large umbrella term for-well- anyone who is divergent from the typical brain. This includes autism, OCD, ADHD, dyslexia, and a myriad of other disorders. This does not include disorders like anxiety or depression, however, because those don't necessarily change the process of how the brain develops. The tricky part about neurodivergency is that the genetics of it are extremely convoluted. One of the other disorders I have- misophonia (sensory disorder where certain sounds trigger a negative response), was likely passed down by my mom, who also has misophonia- albeit much milder than my case. But, autism runs nowhere else in my family besides me. As a matter of fact, disability as a whole is very rare in my family. Combined with everyone I know on my mom and dad's sides, I am one of 3 people to have a type of disability, one of which I am only related to by marriage. With that being said, the two main hypotheses on how most neurodivergent disorders are passed down is either through a mutation that has major impact on a single gene, or by polygenic traits. Another factor is the environment, but that makes up a small percentage of why a child may get one of these disorders. 

Let's connect this to music. Music, as most people would know when listening to their favorite bands, makes you happy; they give you comfort when you need it. I'd definitely know--the happiest day of 2021 so far for me was when I listened to Radiohead's entire discography (B-sides included, of course, who do you take me for?) in a day. Took me 11 hours, but I was having so much fun the entire time. This is because music triggers the release of dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter that is responsible for feelings of pleasure and overall mindfulness. This is not to be confused with serotonin, which is more related to how we process emotions.

Cute little happy dopamine! C8H11NO2, or if you want to be fancy, 3,4 -dihydroxyphenethylamine.

Hyperfixations on top of that release huge amounts of dopamine. That's why people with autism and ADHD can get so into one specific thing: it makes us super happy. So, it makes a whole bunch of sense that music and bands are common topics for hyperfixations: Dopamine squared!!! And, besides the scientific part of it, it's just a blast to try to figure out everything you can about a band in the shortest time possible. Figuring out which key signature is most common in the Beatles' catalogue? BOOM--E major. Ranking my favorite Radiohead songs on a spreadsheet (hyperlinked for your viewing pleasure) using a variety of categories? BAM--my top 5 are Lift, Life in A Glasshouse, Bangers and Mash, Nude, and A Wolf at the Door (listen to them all I promise they are good). Learning a They Might Be Giants song backwards because the band did it live once? Evol erup fo stellub erihppas, am I right? What I'm getting at is, music is such an amazing topic to be hyperfixated on, and it benefits the brain! Even with neurodivergent disorders that don't experience these hyperfixations, such as OCD or dyslexia, music may be a source of calming if an individual were to run into a trigger of a negative reaction to something. Neurodivergent or not, you can't deny that music is the best thing ever.