Intensely pleasurable responses to music correlate with activity in brain regions implicated in reward and emotion

Abstract

We used positron emission tomography to study neural mechanisms underlying intensely pleasant emotional responses to music. Cerebral blood flow changes were measured in response to subject-selected music that elicited the highly pleasurable experience of "shivers-down-the-spine" or "chills." Subjective reports of chills were accompanied by changes in heart rate, electromyogram, and respiration. As intensity of these chills increased, cerebral blood flow increases and decreases were observed in brain regions thought to be involved in reward/motivation, emotion, and arousal, including ventral striatum, midbrain, amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex, and ventral medial prefrontal cortex. These brain structures are known to be active in response to other euphoria-inducing stimuli, such as food, sex, and drugs of abuse. This finding links music with biologically relevant, survival-related stimuli via their common recruitment of brain circuitry involved in pleasure and reward.

Figures

Figure 1

Average measurements (Left) of HR (beats/min), EMG (μV), and RESP (relative depth) for subject-selected (Chills) and control (Ctrl) music conditions, with corresponding examples of individual measurements (Center and Right) for each condition over the timecourse of selected scans (90 sec). Error bars indicate standard error for each average. The same subject/scan is shown for individual measurements of HR and EMG (subject 1); a different subject (subject 2) is shown for RESP. Note that subject 1's control music was subject 2's selected music. Black bars on the abscissa of graphs in the center column indicate time periods corresponding to chills. In all three examples, the chills rating was 7 on a scale of 0 to 10.

Figure 2

Neuroanatomical regions demonstrating significant rCBF correlations with chills intensity ratings. Regression analyses were used to correlate rCBF from averaged PET data for combined subject-selected and control music scans with ratings of chills intensity (0 to 10). Correlations are shown as t-statistic images superimposed on corresponding average MRI scans (see Table 1, all music). The t-statistic ranges for each set of images are coded by color scales below each column, corresponding to a–c (positive correlations with increasing chills intensity), and d–f (negative correlations). a (sagittal section, x = 4 mm) shows positive rCBF correlations in left dorsomedial midbrain (Mb), right thalamus (Th), AC, SMA, and bilateral cerebellum (Cb). b (coronal section, y = 13 mm) shows left ventral striatum (VStr) and bilateral insula (In; also AC). c (coronal section, y = 32 mm) shows right orbitofrontal cortex (Of). d (sagittal section, x = 4 mm) shows negative rCBF correlations in VMPF and visual cortex (VC). e (sagittal section, x = 21 mm) shows right amygdala (Am). f (sagittal section, x = −19 mm) shows left hippocampus/amygdala (H/Am).

Figure 3

rCBF versus subject ratings of chills intensity for regions significantly correlated with chills intensity (subject-selected music only). rCBF values were calculated from subject-selected music scans (10 subjects; 3 scans per subject) for left ventral striatum, left dorsal midbrain, left hippocampus/amygdala, right amygdala, and VMPF. rCBF was calculated for volumes of interest in a 5-mm radius around peak response coordinates reported in Table 1 and plotted here. Trendlines on each plot indicate a least squares fit. A Pearson correlation was used to calculate the correlation coefficient (r) for each region, which is displayed in the top right corner of each plot. VStr, ventral striatum; Mb, dorsomedial midbrain; LH/Am, left hippocampus/amygdala; RAm, right amygdala.