Anatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation and experience of peak emotion to music

Abstract

Music, an abstract stimulus, can arouse feelings of euphoria and craving, similar to tangible rewards that involve the striatal dopaminergic system. Using the neurochemical specificity of [(11)C]raclopride positron emission tomography scanning, combined with psychophysiological measures of autonomic nervous system activity, we found endogenous dopamine release in the striatum at peak emotional arousal during music listening. To examine the time course of dopamine release, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging with the same stimuli and listeners, and found a functional dissociation: the caudate was more involved during the anticipation and the nucleus accumbens was more involved during the experience of peak emotional responses to music. These results indicate that intense pleasure in response to music can lead to dopamine release in the striatal system. Notably, the anticipation of an abstract reward can result in dopamine release in an anatomical pathway distinct from that associated with the peak pleasure itself. Our results help to explain why music is of such high value across all human societies.

Hidden sources of joy, fear, and sadness: Explicit versus implicit neural processing of musical emotions

“…The caudate nucleus is related to implicit learning or conditioning (Etkin et al, 2011) and reward-based learning (Haruno et al, 2004;Seger & Cincotta, 2005) and belongs to the reward circuit for motivational behavior (Delgado et al, 2004;Salimpoor et al, 2011). This neural activity complies with our hypothesis that during implicit processing of emotional music clips, the rewarding aspects of music are less inhibited by conscious categorization, making the subcortical activity more visible.…”

“…We reduced the duration of the musical excerpts to keep the task as consistent as possible with previous studies of implicit processing (e.g., Bach et al, 2008;Critchley et al, 2000;Frühholz et al, 2012). However, we still kept the stimulus duration in the range of seconds rather than milliseconds (as in visual studies or behavioral studies on music emotion perception; see Filipic et al, 2010) to comply with previous music neuroimaging studies (e.g., Koelsch et al, 2006;Salimpoor et al, 2011;Brattico et al, 2011; however, see Pallesen et al, 2005Pallesen et al, , 2009 for studies on musical emotions using single chords lasting less than 1 sec), and to implicitly induce the desired emotions in the listeners and ensure robust brain activation.…”

“…A patient with a large lesion of the temporal and frontal cortices had severe impairments in music perception but intact capacity for music appreciation (Peretz et al, 1998). A number of evolutionarily old brain regions, such as the amygdala, insula, and striatum, have consistently been implicated in music emotion induction and enjoyment (Blood & Zatorre, 2001;Blood et al, 1999;Brattico et al, 2013;Koelsch, 2014;Koelsch et al, 2006;Salimpoor et al, 2011). Indeed, in dementia patients, atrophy of the insula, amygdala, and temporoparietal regions was associated with impaired music emotion recognition (Hsieh et al, 2012;Omar et al, 2011).…”

Promoting well-being through group drumming with mental health service users and their carers

“…Research has centred around two main threads: (1) the impact of listening to music and (2) the impact of making music. Studies focused on listening to music have evidenced a positive influence on stress reduction (Pelletier, 2004), emotional regulation and personal mood management (DeNora, 2000; Hays & Minichiello, 2005; Sloboda, 1999), pleasure and the arousal of positive emotions (Gabrielsson, 2011; Laukka, 2007; Salimpoor, Benovoy, Larcher, Dagher, & Zatorre, 2011), social bonding (Nilsson, 2008), and enhancement of cognitive functioning after neurological impairment (Särkämö, Tervaniemi, & Laitinen, 2008). Additionally, listening to music has been linked to an attribution of meaning in daily life for vulnerable populations such as older adults (Hays & Minichiello, 2005).…”

Using music as a signal for biofeedback

“…For the relaxing piece, we opted to include clear rhythmical events, towards facilitating rhythm entrainment, while still ensuring that these do not counteract the relaxing character of the piece. The composition was slow-changing, to avoid arousal responses from unexpected events (Salimpoor et al, 2011), albeit not being entirely static, so as to maintain the participant's interest. The tempo was made to be perceived as being 60 BPM, a tempo effective for relaxation music interventions (Nilsson, 2008).…”