The Thoughts of We

Scientists have uncovered several important reasons why we love music. Firstly, it triggers our emotional responses, especially when we are listening to music in a public place. It also stimulates the striatum, a region of the brain associated with the reward system, which is responsible for language’s ability to produce shared experiences. This means that our reactions to music are often influenced by the emotions we experience when listening to it.

This is why we respond so intensely to music. This emotion is linked to the reward systems in the brain. This means that the ‘peak emotion’ caused by a piece of music follows the dopamine pathway. Researchers concluded that the rewards and dopamine pathways in the brain are important for music enjoyment. People with higher levels of empathy process music as a human encounter. However, more research is needed to determine if this is really the case.

Besides the rewards of listening to music, the brain also assigns a value to it. Our auditory cortex is formed by the sounds we hear throughout our lives. Moreover, music is one of the most enjoyable experiences. A recent study by researchers at McGill University found that when we listen to music, our brains respond to it in a way that promotes our emotional responses. These results have implications for the design of musical venues and audio systems.