Reading time: 2 minutes – spotted on New Atlas
“Music gives us an energy gain and reduces the pain when we run, helps reduce anxiety, helps to make us happy, to appease the moments of sadness”explains Radio France. Musical art has accompanied us since prehistoric times: in Europe, archaeologists have found flutes in bone and ivory aged 40,000 years. But this deep link with music does not mean that everyone manages to appreciate listening. Although their hearing is normal and they can feel pleasure through many other experiences, some people explain that musical works bring them absolutely nothing, reports the New Atlas online media.
For a long time, studies dedicated to this phenomenon based on the principle of global sensitivity. In other words, it was considered that the ability to feel pleasure applied equally to all types of stimuli. But ten years ago, a team of scientists questioned this idea by discovering a rare disorder called “specific musical anhedonia”.
Broken bond between brain and music
The researchers had focused on individuals who did not find pleasant music but who nevertheless appreciated other stimuli. This same team from the University of Barcelona recently elucidated the underlying mechanism for these individual differences in sensitivity to music. The conclusions of this research are published in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
For Josep Marco-Pallares, co-author of the study, the musical anhedonia is caused by a bad connection between the cerebral hearing network and its reward circuit. Indeed, this disconnection prevents music from triggering the reward systems which are essential for our pleasure. “The study of these circuits could open the way to new research on individual differences and disorders related to the reward, such as addiction or eating disorders”specifies the specialist.
So how do you know if someone suffers from musical anhedonia? The researchers have developed a questionnaire which measures several ways whose individuals interact with music: the way in which emotions are aroused, the impact on mood and social ties, if listening to songs encourages dance or movement and if the listener is looking for new products. People affected tend to obtain low scores in all these dimensions.
For the moment, scientists do not yet know the reasons why this affection is developing. The study suggests that genetics and the environment play an essential role. According to a study published by Sciencedirect, around 5% of cases are of congenital origin. The authors also believe that this disease can be acquired as a result of brain damage. This condition would affect between 3% and 5% of the world’s population.
