Music is like a drug

LA Times has posted an interesting piece on how the brain responds to music:

You know that feeling you get when you listen to a favorite part of a favorite song? Some scientists have a refreshingly unscientific word for it: They call it the “chills.” In the lab they can measure the chills, which correspond with a specific pattern of brain arousal and often are accompanied by increases in heart and breathing rates and other physical responses.

Now neurologists report that this human response to music — which has existed for thousands of years, across cultures around the world — involves dopamine, the same chemical in the brain that is associated with the intense pleasure people get from more tangible rewards such as food or addictive drugs. The research will be published Sunday in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Read the full piece here.