Music, an abstract stimulus, can arouse feelings of euphoria and craving, similar to tangible rewards that involve the striatal dopaminergic system… These results indicate that intense pleasure in response to music can lead to dopamine release in the striatal system... Our results help to explain why music is of such high value across all human societies. Those extracts are from a paper in the journal Nature Neuroscience . Complex science needs to be treated with respect and caution, but the findings do resonate with recent paths about the links between classical music and hallucinogens , kinetic art (thanks go to Norman Perryman for the heads up ), therapy , and ecstatic traditions such as Sufism . They also suggest exploitable similarities between music and tangible reward systems such as sex and gourmet food, and more importantly to opportunities for the medical application of music – in particular as a palliative for Parkinson’s disease, because a loss of dopamine-secreting neuron...
Comments
But on the EMI business, I just wanted to say that I got a real shock the morning I clicked on my link to the Naxos Music Library and found myself reading a notice that Naxos would henceforth be distributing the EMI catalogue: All of it, from Beatrice Harrison to Leif Ove Andnes. They estimate it will take them three months to add the whole lot to the Library. The Boult recordings added thus far have been enough to keep me occupied for a while, and some I never thought to hear, as also recordings of others. And, I must add, they are now also the distibutor for Virgin. There's significance in here somewhere, though I've not yet fathomed it Perhaps I'm too busy avidly listening.