It is known that music contributes to mental and emotional health. “Listen to her releases Dopaminea substance that is associated with placerthat’s why we feel satisfaction Upon listening to our music of preference, ”he explained in a recent note, the graduate Jorgelina BenavídezMusicotherapist, MN269, Coordinator of the INECO Music therapy team, director of the Department of therapies based on the Ineco arts.
In addition, if the canto “The happiness hormonessuch as oxytocin and endorphins, ”added the specialist.
However, the brain mechanisms that underlie the musical enjoyment are not yet fully understood.
A recent study of the Pet Center in Turku (Finland) showed that listening to our favorite music activates the brain opioid receptorswhich influences the function of the opioid system, responsible for pleasant experiences related to the Survival, such as food and sex and relieves him pain. This finding, published in the European Magazine of Nuclear Medicine, provides a new perspective on how music can generate intense pleasure.
The study used positron emission tomography (TEP) to measure opioid release in the brain while participants listened to their favorite music. Functional magnetic resonance (RMF) was also used to examine how the density of opioid receptors influences brain activation during musical experience.
Music can evoke a intense pleasuresometimes even physically experienced as pleasant chills. The results indicated that opioid release was directly related to the intensity of the pleasant chills experienced by participants and with the amount of opioid receptors in their brains.
Vesa Putkinenresearcher at the University of Turku explained: “These results demonstrate for the first time that Listen to active music the opioid brain system. Opioid release explains why music can cause so intense sensations of pleasure, even if it is not a necessary primary reward for survival or reproduction, such as food or sexual pleasure, ”he said.
-In addition, the teacher Lauri Nummenmaa He suggested that the analgesic effects They could be related to the opioid responses produced by music: “The opioid system of the brain also participates in The relief of pain. According to our findings, the analgesic effects of the music observed above could be due to the opioid responses induced by music in the brain, ”he said.
The study provides a new perspective on how the chemical systems of the brain regulate the pleasure produced by music. This advance has implications for future music -based interventionsespecially in The treatment of pain and mental disorders.
In addition to pleasure, music can benefit the stimulation of memory and other cognitive functions. A 2023 study conducted by psychologists from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) revealed that fluctuating emotions caused by music play a crucial role in the formation of intense and durable memories. The researchers used melodies to manipulate volunteer emotions while performing simple tasks on a computer and discovered that these emotional variations transformed seemingly neutral experiences into memorable events. This finding, published in the revista Nature Communicationscould open new possibilities to address disorders such as posttraumatic stress and depression.
Research work focused on how emotions They mold the memorya process that until now remains an enigma for science. Memories, which are divided into individual episodes, are part of each individual’s personal narrative. According to researchers, music has the ability to influence this process by generating emotional changes that separate and highlight certain moments, making them More vivid and enduring In time.
Mr. Benavidez explained: “Learning a musical instrument requires a lot of demand from our brain Because it will be at stake particularly motor coordination, that is, everything that is fine motor skills. Specifically the visual cortex. There are many studies that could verify how studying a musical instrument is really a gym For our brain as if we set out to study a New languagefavoring the best performance and functioning of cognitive functions in particular of the attention and of the memory”, Concluded the music therapist.
Knowledge about link between music and memory It is not new, But this study provided scientific evidence on how melodies induced emotions can directly influence the way in which They store and remember the events. UCLA researchers observed that the emotional dynamics generated by music not only intensified memories, but also separated them in different episodes, facilitating their subsequent recovery.
