Do you know, chills you get when you listen to music, is mostly caused by the brain releasing dopamine while anticipating the peak moment of a song.
Studies found biological explanation for why music always has been such a huge part of emotional events around the world since the beginning of human history. Let’s check top 5 interesting facts about music.
5. Songs that get stuck in your head are called “earworms”.
Victoria Williamson, a researcher at the University of Sheffield, has researched why a certain song gets stuck in your head. Earworms can have several triggers, she explained to the BBC in 2012. Some are obvious: having heard the song recently and repeatedly can contribute. But so can seeing a single word that reminds you of that song (for example, Williamson says walking into a shoe shop called Faith led to George Michael’s song of the same name being stuck in her head all afternoon).
4. Doctors have prescribed music to treat Parkinson’s disease and strokes
It’s actually helpful for patients with Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, stroke victims, and people with anxiety and depression. Music can help overcome bradykinesia (difficulty initiating movement, often linked to Parkinson’s) by triggering neurons that translate the music into organized movement.
Playing music also has its own health benefits. Patients with Parkinson’s disease report that spending time playing the drums helps them have more control over their bodily movements and reduces tremors. The one downside to music therapy is that the benefits wear off 2 months after the therapy is discontinued.
3. We mishear lyrics because of the powerful role expectations play in our hearing.
In the 1950s a Harper’s magazine writer coined the term “Mondegreens” for misheard lyrics, in reference to a Scottish folk song in which she heard the words “Lady Mondegreen” instead of “laid him on the green”.
This happens because the meaning we create from songs doesn’t come entirely from what we hear.
“There’s a piece of what we understand that comes from the sound that comes in our ear,” Mark Liberman, a linguist at the University of Pennsylvania, told PRI, but “there’s a piece of what we understand that comes from the expectations in our brain”.
How can you forget the famous song “Banno tera Sweater…Lage sexy…” from the Bollywood movie Tanu weds Manu.
Hey….It was “Swagger” not “Sweater”!
2. Music is as addictive as sex and drugs.
A study had participants listen to music while being scanned by an fMRI machine. The researchers found that the brain released dopamine both in anticipation of hearing music and while listening to music. The reaction was similar to the reactions in the brain that occur for drug and sex addicts
The release of dopamine during music explains why such a high value is put on it and why music can manipulate our emotions.
1. Cows produce more milk when listening to relaxing music.
We already discussed a lot regarding interesting facts about music but finally…… as reported by the BBC in 2001, listening to relaxing music can lead to cows producing more milk. The study involved 1,000 cows being exposed to fast, slow, or no music for 12 hours a day over a nine-week period.
When listening to the slow music (e.g. “Everybody Hurts” by REM) the cows produced 3% more milk per day than when they listened to fast music (e.g. “Space Cowboy” by Jamiroquai).
“Calming music can improve milk yield, probably because it reduces stress,” Dr Adrian North, who carried out the study, told the BBC.
