Have you ever had that experience when a really good song is playing and suddenly you break out into goosebumps? One of the most memorable times this has happened to me was when I was walking down the road to my college in my last semester, and ‘I See Fire’ by Ed Sheeran from the Hobbit came up on my shuffle.
Did you feel chills, a lump in your throat, or perhaps a tingling sensation on the back of your neck? Then you might have a more unique brain than you think.
Alissa Der Sarkissian, a research assistant at USC’s Brain and Creativity Institute, has a unique reaction to the song ‘Nude’ by Radiohead. She describes the experience as her breathing synchronizing with the melody, her heartbeat slowing, and her consciousness of the song deepening. She can deliberately feel the emotions encapsulated in the music and her physiological responses to those emotions.
Intrigued by these experiences, Matthew Sachs, a former Harvard student now studying psychology and neuroscience at USC’s Brain and Creativity Institute, decided to explore why some people get goosebumps from music. Sachs, a colleague of Sarkissian, conducted a study with 20 student participants. Half reported experiencing goosebumps during music listening, while the other half did not. He examined their brain activity, heart rates, and skin conductance while they listened to three songs of their choosing.
Intrigued by these experiences, Matthew Sachs, a former Harvard student now studying psychology and neuroscience at USC’s Brain and Creativity Institute, decided to explore why some people get goosebumps from music. Sachs, a colleague of Sarkissian, conducted a study with 20 student participants. Half reported experiencing goosebumps during music listening, while the other half did not. He examined their brain activity, heart rates, and skin conductance while they listened to three songs of their choosing.
From his study, Sachs devised an equation: Pgoosebumps = CF (Sc + Id + Ap). In this equation, CF represents cognitive factors, Sc denotes social and environmental context, Id stands for individual differences, and Ap signifies the acoustic properties of the music. Pgoosebumps represents the likelihood of experiencing goosebumps.
As Sachs explained to Neuroscience magazine, “The idea being that more fibers and increased efficiency between two regions mean that you have more efficient processing between them.” The full study, published in Oxford Academic, suggests that those who experience goosebumps from music tend to feel emotions more intensely than others. Another factor to consider is the triggering effect of music-associated memories, an aspect Sachs couldn’t control in his lab setting. Other factors, such as powerful lyrics, pitch variation, harmony intervals, and group singing, also contribute to goosebumps.
Although the initial study only involved twenty participants, Sachs is now conducting more extensive research, studying the different brain mechanisms that occur when music elicits reactions. Sachs is deeply interested in how a specific arrangement of notes can evoke such profound emotional responses in people. Through his research, he hopes to understand the neurological underpinnings behind these reactions and apply this knowledge to help treat patients with mental health disorders.
