The case of those who do not thrill the music

2017/02/19 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Anatomia/Fisiologia

3-5% of the population says they have musical anhedonia. This is called the inability to feel emotions when listening to music. These people have no other symptoms, for example, they are able to differentiate different types of music. Therefore, they can say if a particular melody is cheerful or goibela, but when they hear it, no emotion is awakened. For them, music is a neutral sound.

From a scientific point of view, musical yearning is a very interesting phenomenon. In fact, music is universal and evolving it is believed to be prior to the word. It has also been called “language of emotions” because it is directly related to the transmission of emotions. For example, mothers around the world sing their sons and daughters and have a prominent place in religious rites, celebrations, sporting, armed or political displays.

Neuroscientists have shown that listening and playing music modulates the level of some neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters are responsible for communication between neurons, so they have a direct influence on the body. It includes serotinin, epinephrine, dopamine and prolactin. They all participate in the mechanism of pleasure, which explains, for most, that music is a source of pleasure.

But what about those who have yearning for music? An experiment conducted in 2015 compares the thrill of making money playing poker and listening to music. And they showed that although they felt joy in making money in the game, the music didn't affect anything. This shows that the impossibility of feeling pleasure is not widespread, but is limited to music. It seems that in people with musical yearning, the connections between music processing and neurons connecting pleasure zones are weaker than normal.

Now, in another study published in the journal Scientific reports, they have gone a step further and have managed to provoke musical yearning for people who did not have that disability. They have used a compound, naltrexone, which blocks opioid receptors in neurons.

These opioids are produced by the body itself as a result of a pleasurable stimulus. Food, sex, sport and music are some of the opioid creations. However, if naltroxone is taken, opioids derived from music do not reach neurons. Therefore, you cannot feel pleasure, not even listening to the favorite music.

According to researchers, the experiment has helped to understand the basis of musical yearning, but they have acknowledged that they still have unanswered questions.

Published in the newspaper Berria.