Listening Believer (A 2 year old song by Imagine Dragons) gives me chills. I could feel the song. Not because it's relatable or like that, but while listening to most of the songs, I get Goosebumps. I don't know why. And so I googled it!
Music seems to have a special impact on us. Listening good music seems that it enters the core of our body. It gives us chills.
When I googled it, it turned out that getting chills by hearing songs is not as common as I had previously thought. So it might be a sensory superpower. It turns out that 50% of the world's population experience shivers and Goosebumps while listening to songs.
Fun Fact: There's a scientific name to this process of getting chills while listening songs. It is called as frisson.
What's more interesting that studies show, such people might have very different brains than those who don't experience those feelings. These people are more prone to experience extreme emotions.
In a study of 20 people, 10 people got chills by listening to their favourite music. It was later found that there were more fibers in the brain connecting their auditory cortex (brain's area processing sound) and the part that controls emotions. More fibers mean that those two areas of the brain can communicate much more effectively. It also means that, because their emotional processing centers are beefier, those people are more able to experience extreme emotions.
But that's the later part. Why do we get chills at the first place!!!
Fun Fact: Your personality matters, too. Scientists found that people who are more open to new experiences are more likely to feel a quiver down their spine. Meanwhile, people who felt chills were less likely to be thrill seekers, but were more reward-driven.
Research shows that’s because music stimulates an ancient reward pathway in the brain, encouraging dopamine to flood the striatum (A part of the forebrain activated by addiction, reward, and motivation).
Strangely, those dopamine levels can peak several seconds before the song’s special moment (Like PAINNNN! in case of Believer!). That’s because your brain is a good listener—it’s constantly predicting what’s going to happen next.
But music is tricky. It can be unpredictable, teasing our brains and keeping those dopamine triggers guessing. And that’s where the chills may come in. Because when you finally hear that long awaited chord, the striatum sighs with dopamine-soaked satisfaction and huh! you get the chills. The greater the build-up, the greater the chill.
Well, because no one really know the real reason behind frisson, there's another theory: The amygdala, which processes your emotions, responds uniquely to music. A somber tune may activate a fear response in the amygdala, making your hair stand on end. When that happens, your brain quickly reviews whether there’s any real danger. When it realizes there’s nothing to worry about, that fear response becomes positive. The fear subsides but the chill remains.
So, chills can be felt at any peak in the music and with any type of music. It's nothing odd or nothing awkward to get Goosebumps while listening to your favourite songs. This just proves that you are so different than others.
Posts before October 2021 have been marked as "Old Posts". Less likely, but they might have out dated or incorrect information, ugly looking bits of code, no labels, etc. Don't get me wrong, many of these posts are top-notch and interesting too.
I thought it would be better not to delete or revamp these posts, even if they suck. The bitter truth is that old works always suck, but I take that as a positive tool to convey that I am growing. Besides there's no better way to showcase my journey without these old, messy, poorly written posts!
I thought it would be better not to delete or revamp these posts, even if they suck. The bitter truth is that old works always suck, but I take that as a positive tool to convey that I am growing. Besides there's no better way to showcase my journey without these old, messy, poorly written posts!
Old Post