What happens in the brain when people make music together?

http: // dx. doi. org / 10. 1037 / amp0000819

Explanation

This psychological study investigated the neuroscientific understanding of brain activation and social connections when playing music.

Conducted by a team of social neuroscientists from Bar-Ilan University and the University of Chicago, it focuses on a model of the brain that sheds light on the social functioning and brain mechanisms underlying musical adaptations used for human connection, and was inspired by the creative efforts of people around the world to recreate music-making together while socially distanced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This included people singing together online, group singing on video conferencing platforms such as Zoom, and live living room concerts by Yo Yo Ma, Chris Martin of Coldplay, NorahJones, and others.

From this analysis, the researchers highlighted five key functions and mechanisms of the brain that contribute to social connectivity through music.

(1) Empathic circuits

(2) Oxytocin secretion

(3) Reward and motivation, including dopamine release

(4) Language structure.

(5) Cortisol.

These five functions and mechanisms included at least 12 important brain regions and two pathways.

Empathy is the ability to help others attune to how they think and feel, and can be improved through musical adjustments in interpersonal relationships.

Oxytocin is sometimes referred to as the "love hormone" because it contributes to the feeling of social bonding with others. It is released when we sing along, even when we improvise.

Dopamine, a neurotransmitter that produces pleasurable sensations, is released during the anticipation and expectation of music and is crucial to our sense of reward and motivation.

Linguistic structures in the brain are involved in the back and forth musical dialogue.

Cortisol, a hormone that contributes to stress, is reduced in the brain when people sing together or listen to music together in groups.

This research provides the basis for a new field called the "social neuroscience of music. It is based on the previously established cognitive neuroscience of music, which focused primarily on listening to music.