The vast majority of us react in some way to music. We identify when something pleases us or not, what makes us want to dance or sing or what makes us go by song.
But beyond the normal emotions that music awakens, there are people who, when they hear it, feel very intense emotions. For what is this?
Structural differences in the brain
Matthew Sachs, a Ph.D. student at USC University in psychology and neuroscience, conducted a study in which he focused on investigating those people who feel intense emotions when listening to music.
Sachs did the study while studying at Harvard University and could see that those people who experience such intense emotions with music have structural differences in the brain.
A better processing of emotions
To investigate what happens when people have that special emotion, the group of specialists from Harvard University (including Matthew Sachs) and Wesleyan University, selected 10 people who regularly had these intense experiences when listening to music.
And in the same way, they selected another 10 people who never experienced these sensations.
The team of specialists analyzed all the brains of people while listening to music, from Coldplay to Wagner.
As a result, the team found that the brains of people who occasionally felt intense emotion with music had a different brain structure.
They presented a greater volume of fibers that connect the auditory cortex with the area associated with emotional processing, making the two areas communicate better.
With their study, Sach and his colleagues revealed that these people have a better ability to experience intense emotions.
While the study was applied to music because it focuses on the auditory cortex, it could lead to new research about structural brain differences and people who possess that better ability to process emotions.