How Music Can Affect The Brain Like a Drug
Andrew Fraieli • February 14, 2014
Now that I’ve got your attention with the idea of
free drugs, what if I were to tell you that you’ve been downloading drugs off the internet
for some time now? Well, according to some research, if you’ve been downloading music off the internet
then you have. Research on this exact topic was actually being carried out here
on campus by a Dr. Large, but he and his lab have moved to a different
university. Music is very similar to drugs in many different ways and pretty
much is one.
Drugs
are known for their ability to invoke intense emotional states, change a person’s behavior and change the way they
perceive their surroundings. Music does the same thing. Ever hear your favorite
song and get really excited? Well it may not seem like a drug, and you may
think that the song is just making you happy, but happiness is a drug too.
Technically, it’s not happiness, it’s called dopamine. Dopamine is a chemical
that is commonly released in the brain as a reward for something you do, making
you feel good so that you do that thing again. It’s an evolutionary process that makes you
keep doing necessary things like eating to stay alive and having sex to keep
the human race alive. This chemical being released in your brain is the same
effect of some drugs, the most common one being ecstasy. The effect isn’t the release of dopamine though. Ecstasy
actually keeps the brain from letting the dopamine go away, but music affects
the brain in a very similar, but less intense, way. It may not be as intense so
as to cause hallucinations, but it can cause very intense feelings.
Music is heavily
connected to memory as well, so that connection helps music cause emotional
reactions. A song heard for the first time will have drastically different
effects on someone’s brain than when they hear a song that
they heard when they fell in love.
Music alone creates
drug-like effects in your brain, but there are many other factors that can
change how it affects your brain. Listening to Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon” through headphones while laying on a bed,
relaxing with the lights off, will affect you in a much different way than
listening to it in a crowded restaurant with other stuff going on around you.
The way music affects someone is very different from person to person and
depends a lot on the circumstances. People do drugs for different reasons just
like people listen to music for different reasons. Someone may do cocaine to
give them energy and get them excited just like someone may listen to a pop
song to get them pumped. Someone may smoke weed to relax just like someone may
put on jazz to relax.
Music is something
that we as a species absolutely love. We like listening to it and we love
making it. Why? Well, that’s still being figured out. There are some
theories, but we will probably never be able to find out exactly why because
music is so different from person to person. Everyone likes music for their own
reason, be it to remember a loved one or to bring yourself to a different place
and escape from the world. Whatever reason that people love music, it’s usually to make them happy, something
music is very good at. And it’s also technically a drug that is easy
(and legal) to get, so it’s fun to say that.
Music is a vast
and endless sea of creation, popularity and emotions. What is interesting is
that no one ever sails the same sea. Everyone’s taste in music is different and this is
almost as interesting a subject as music in itself. Music also affects everyone
differently. No one ever hears the same song–it’s amazing how there are so many things
that change how people hear music and how it affects them. Some people go
soul-searching while others jump up and down in a crowded room pounding with
bass. Everyone has a different perspective on enjoying music, none more correct
than any other. One person may sail this sea in a little wooden boat while others
prefer a yacht, some may prefer to get lost and see where they end up or some
may have a set destination. How do you travel the sea of music?
Source :
http://www.upressonline.com/2014/02/how-music-can-affect-the-brain-like-a-drug/
Accessed on Tuesday, 6 May 2014. 10:21 PM
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