Neural Correlates of Music Listening: Does the Music Matter?

TY - JOUR

T1 - Neural Correlates of Music Listening

T2 - Does the Music Matter?

AU - Reybrouck, Mark

AU - Vuust, Peter

AU - Brattico, Elvira

PY - 2021/11

Y1 - 2021/11

N2 - The last decades have seen a proliferation of music and brain studies, with a major focus on plastic changes as the outcome of continuous and prolonged engagement with music. Thanks to the advent of neuroaesthetics, research on music cognition has broadened its scope by considering the multifarious phenomenon of listening in all its forms, including incidental listening up to the skillful attentive listening of experts, and all its possible effects. These latter range from objective and sensorial effects directly linked to the acoustic features of the music to the subjectively affective and even transformational effects for the listener. Of special importance is the finding that neural activity in the reward circuit of the brain is a key component of a conscious listening experience. We propose that the connection between music and the reward system makes music listening a gate towards not only hedonia but also eudaimonia, namely a life well lived, full of meaning that aims at realizing one’s own “daimon” or true nature. It is argued, further, that music listening, even when conceptualized in this aesthetic and eudaimonic framework, remains a learnable skill that changes the way brain structures respond to sounds and how they interact with each other.

AB - The last decades have seen a proliferation of music and brain studies, with a major focus on plastic changes as the outcome of continuous and prolonged engagement with music. Thanks to the advent of neuroaesthetics, research on music cognition has broadened its scope by considering the multifarious phenomenon of listening in all its forms, including incidental listening up to the skillful attentive listening of experts, and all its possible effects. These latter range from objective and sensorial effects directly linked to the acoustic features of the music to the subjectively affective and even transformational effects for the listener. Of special importance is the finding that neural activity in the reward circuit of the brain is a key component of a conscious listening experience. We propose that the connection between music and the reward system makes music listening a gate towards not only hedonia but also eudaimonia, namely a life well lived, full of meaning that aims at realizing one’s own “daimon” or true nature. It is argued, further, that music listening, even when conceptualized in this aesthetic and eudaimonic framework, remains a learnable skill that changes the way brain structures respond to sounds and how they interact with each other.

KW - Allostatic load

KW - Arousal

KW - Chills and thrills

KW - Eudaimonic experience

KW - Hedonic pleasure

KW - Homeostatic regulation

KW - Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis

KW - Musical-aesthetic experience

KW - Neuroaesthetics

KW - Reward circuit

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85121671118&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/BRAINSCI11121553

DO - 10.3390/BRAINSCI11121553

M3 - Review

AN - SCOPUS:85121671118

SN - 2076-3425

VL - 11

JO - Brain sciences

JF - Brain sciences

IS - 12

M1 - 1553

ER -