When Music Gives You Chills

irenechiandetti
Oct 12, 2025
2 min read

Dopamine And The Neuroscience Of Musical Pleasure

Two Phases, Two Brain Regions

The study involved participants who frequently experienced musical chills—that wave of emotion that can leave you breathless during your favorite song.

While listening to both emotionally powerful and neutral tracks, participants underwent PET scans (to monitor dopamine release) and fMRI (to track brain activity).

Here's what they discovered:

During the anticipation phase (the buildup to the emotional high), dopamine is released in the caudate nucleus, part of the dorsal striatum.
During the peak emotional moment, dopamine floods the nucleus accumbens, located in the ventral striatum.

This distinction reveals a beautiful dual-process system:

The brain processes anticipation and reward through different but closely connected circuits.

Chills as Biological Signature

The intensity of dopamine release was directly linked to the intensity of chills reported by participants—suggesting that chills are a genuine biological marker of musical pleasure.

Moreover, the study found strong activity in other areas such as:

The orbitofrontal cortex (associated with decision-making and pleasure),
And the limbic system (the emotional center of the brain.

But Why Do We Love Music So Much?

Unlike food or sex, music isn't essential for survival. So why does it activate the same dopaminergic system?

Scientists propose that music may have played an evolutionary role:
Promoting social bonding
Helping humans communicate emotions,
And possibly regulating mood and anxiety.

In this sense, music may have helped us connect and survive together.

Why It Matters

Understanding the brain’s response to music has powerful implications:

Mental health: Insights into dopamine circuits could inspire music-based therapies for depression and addiction.
Neurorehabilitation: Harnessing reward pathways may improve motivation in recovery.
Everyday well-being: Shows why music is not just art—it’s a biological necessity for human connection and resilience.

Conclusion: Music as a Pleasure Therapy?

This study offers an elegant two-stage model of musical pleasure:

Anticipation of reward → Caudate nucleus
Experience of reward → Nucleus accumbens

Understanding these processes could have clinical applications. Conditions like depression or addiction often involve a malfunctioning reward system.In the future, music could become part of a new frontier: pleasure-based therapy—rooted in neuroscience.