The Real Reason We Are Attached to the Music of Our Youth

Remember when you were kids, and your parents would get excited or emotional when the favorite songs of their youth would come on? It may have seemed funny then, but surely you can relate to that sentiment today when you have a family of your own. Discovering new music has become easier and more accessible than ever before, with apps like Spotify and Apple Music. We literally have the entire musical world at our fingertips. And yet, scrolling through the options trying to decide what to listen to, most of us will opt for old time favorites.

You may think, ‘well, why risk spending time on something that I don’t enjoy?’ and you’d be right, but there is more to it than that. Apparently, there is a psychological reason for our desire to seek comfort in the familiar. Read on to find out why listening to new music is actually difficult for the brain and why it can make us feel uneasy or even angry.

 

Why our brains reject new melodies When the brain receives new information, in this case, a song, it is stored in the long-term memory. The next time you hear the same melody, your brain will be able to match the sound pattern to what it already knows. Recognizing patterns allows us to predict and expect what is coming. In other words, when our brain recognizes new patterns it adapts accordingly, which is what makes humans the intelligent beings that they are.

When it comes to hearing music, a network of nerves in the auditory cortex called the corticofugal network helps catalog the different patterns of music. When a specific sound maps onto a pattern, our brains release a corresponding amount of dopamine, the main chemical source of some of our most intense emotions. This is the essential reason why music triggers such powerful emotional reactions. 

 

In his book, ‘Proust Was a Neuroscientist, the neuroscience lab worker and author Jonah Lehrer explained how the essential joy of music works. As the chords progress, our brain realizes this is a known pattern, and gradually releases just the right amount of dopamine, so it spikes more and more without going off the charts. But when we hear something that hasn’t yet been mapped onto the brain, the corticofugal network is confused, so to speak, and too much dopamine is released as a response. When there is no clear map or pattern to anchor to, music can register as unpleasant. “If the dopamine neurons can’t correlate their firing with outside events,” Lehrer writes, “the brain is unable to make cogent associations.”

The most infamous debut of new innovative music  

One anecdote that proves this theory is the story of one of the most controversial musical debuts in history - Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. The orchestral ballet was first performed at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris in 1913.

As soon as the show started, the audience felt that this wasn’t what they expected. The Rite began with a solo bassoon so high in its register, that the sound ended up sounding alien and strange. The performance continued in the same fashion, the harmonies and rhythms were too difficult to follow. Soon, the crowd started laughing, then jeering and shouting, some people reportedly even threw vegetables. 40 people simply left the theater in the middle, and needless to say the reviews ripped The Rite to shreds. 

 

But after that chaotic evening, the ballet continued running in the theater for many months. Subsequent performances were packed, and at each one, the opposition lessened. Eventually, these shows ended with ‘vigorous applause’ and Stravinsky was even adored for his creation. 

 

Our brains are wired to reject the unknown. That is why we experience pleasure when driving through our hometown, for example, and why we are so attached to the tunes of our youth. While the act of listening to new music is hard, it is necessary from time to time, to stimulate and literally challenge our brains.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   

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Researchers decode how harsh sounds produced by alarms or from human shrieks disturb our brain

In a first, researchers have decoded what happens in our brain when we hear harsh sounds produced by alarms or from human shrieks -- an advance that may help us better diagnose mental illnesses like schizophrenia. In such diseases, patients show atypical responses to certain sounds.

Alarms such as a car horn or natural human screams are are made of repetitive sound fluctuations in the frequency range of 40 and 80 Hertz (Hz), the study noted.

To understand how some of these sounds were perceived as unpleasant, neuroscientists, analysed how people react when they listen to a range of different sounds. The researchers tried to determine the extent to which repetitive sound frequencies are unpleasant.

When studying the areas of the brain stimulated by listening to these frequencies, they found that both the conventional sound-processing circuit and the more advanced brain areas involved in processing salience and aversion were also activated.

The researchers played repetitive sounds between zero and 250 Hz to 16 participants closer and closer together to define the frequencies that the brain found unbearable.

"We then asked participants when they perceived the sounds as being rough (distinct from each other) and when they perceived them as smooth (forming one continuous and single sound)," said co-author.

From the participants' responses, the scientists established the upper limit of sound roughness as around 130 Hz. "Above this limit, the frequencies are heard as forming only one continuous sound," said the author.

To understand why 130 Hz was the upper limit here, the neuroscientists asked participants to listen to a different set of frequencies, which they had to classify on a scale of one to five -- one being bearable, and five being unbearable.

"The sounds considered intolerable were mainly between 40 and 80 Hz, i.e. in the range of frequencies used by alarms and human screams, including those of a baby," he said.

According to the researchers, as humans evolved, it was crucial from a survival perspective to capture attention from these sounds from a distance, unlike a visual stimulus.

"That's why alarms use these rapid repetitive frequencies to maximise the chances that they are detected and gain our attention," the author said. The researchers added that when the repetitions are spaced less than about 25 milliseconds apart, the brain cannot anticipate them and tried to suppress them.

The brain, the study noted, is constantly on alert and attentive to the stimulus. Harsh sounds fall outside the conventional auditory system, note the researchers, who then attempted to find out what exactly happened to such sound signals in the brain.

"We used an intracranial EEG, which records brain activity inside the brain itself in response to sounds," said a neurologist and researcher.

The auditory cortex in the upper temporal lobe is activated when sounds are perceived as continuous i.e above 130 Hz, the study noted.

"This is the conventional circuit for hearing," said a researcher,

But for harsh sounds, especially between 40 and 80 Hz, they induce a persistent response that activates a large number of more advanced regions of the brain which are not part of the conventional auditory system, the researchers said.

"These sounds solicit the amygdala, hippocampus and insula in particular, all areas related to salience, aversion and pain. This explains why participants experienced them as being unbearable," said the author.

Even while the sound frequencies between 40 and 80 Hz have been used for long in alarm systems, this is the first time this frequency range has been shown to mobilise these neural networks, the study noted.

"Something particular happens at these frequencies, and there are also many illnesses that show atypical brain responses to sounds at 40 Hz. These include Alzheimer's, autism and schizophrenia," the author said.

this is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   
https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations 
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement