Why does music give you goosebumps?

Have you ever heard a song somewhere that has connected you to a special moment in your life? Or maybe they are not about specific topics, but they are you are one of those who with some types of music gives you goosebumps.

If you are one of the latter, you would have been a good candidate to participate in the study proposed by a student from Harvard who wanted to discover what happens in our brain when we feel chills listening to a piece musical. But what exactly did he discover? We will tell you.

Does music give you goosebumps?

When Matthew Sachs, a former student at Harvard University, decided to study the curiosity that this observation aroused in him, he set in motion an investigation by means of which he tried to obtain conclusions about the origin of the reaction of certain people when music makes them the skin of chicken.

To do this, he devoted himself to examining 20 students, of which 10 of them admitted to noticing chills when exposed to music and another 10 said they did not perceive anything different at those times. He performed brain scans of each and every one of them in order to identify which areas were activated especially in that situation, with the aim of being able to understand what was different between one and the other people.

The results obtained

The conclusions reached were categorical, since Sachs observed a series of structural differences between one and the other. brains that would explain the difference of reaction between those to whom music gives them goose bumps and those who do not feel nothing.

Through this study it was possible to conclude that those people who had established a type of emotional attachment to music, had a tendency to have a higher density of connecting fibers between their auditory cortex and the brain areas responsible for processing emotions. In this way, these two parties can better communicate.

But what would this discovery mean? That what at first may be showing the simple detail that music gives you goosebumps is a sample of your greater sensitivity to perceiving emotions, living them with much more intensity and strength than other types of people. That is to say, you are not only sensitive to what the music transmits to you, but your own nature is prone to feel everything much more intensely than the average.

Useful insights to move forward

Despite the fact that the study was certainly somewhat limited, having a sample in which only 20 people were studied, the intention is to be able to expand said research.

In this way, it would be possible to delve deeper into the possible benefits that the new conclusions reached would offer, since it would mean improvements in certain types of psychological therapies such as music therapyto.

Using music to influence our emotions

Another consideration that would be taken into account when studying this phenomenon further is the innate ability that people have to establish associations between our most intimate emotions and events that take place around us.

For example, when something happens that excites us in one way or another, such as receiving sad news while we are watching a movie, surely when we see it again in the future we will have unconsciously associated the sadness of that moment.

In the same way, when we hear a song and we are feeling something very intense being with a person that we like, or we share a passionate moment while it is playing, it is almost certain that when at another moment we hear that same melody, make us remember the sensations experienced with that someone so special.

This fact, although it is something that happens naturally, could also be used to pursue an end, such as resorting to this type of mechanism (by which it is possible to influence the emotions of a person through exposure to a song) in certain treatments to improve the quality of life of certain people who are going through emotionally delicate moments talking.