frisson (and music that gives us the chills)

[underused]

frisson
a sudden strong feeling of excitement or fear; a thrill

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Frisson is an old word, but people are talking about it in a new(ish) context: musical frisson.

Researchers at The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital determined that “even the anticipation of pleasurable music induces dopamine release” resulting in a galvanic skin response (the chills). It's the same kind of thrill we get from food, drugs, and sex.

According to neuroscientist Dr. Robert Zatorre:

“This is the first demonstration that an abstract reward such as music can lead to dopamine release. Abstract rewards are largely cognitive in nature, and this study paves the way for future work to examine non-tangible rewards that humans consider rewarding for complex reasons."

In other words, they want to figure out why our brains are rewarding us for something not (yet) demonstrably tied to survival.

Not everyone experiences musically-induced frisson, but studies suggest it’s more than half of us. There's even a Reddit group for people to share their most shiver-worthy recordings.

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Have you felt musical frisson? When?
Is there a song or recording that gives you a charge?

Comments

[star_fish]

Allll the time, it's one of the main reasons I like listening to music. Sometimes it's whole songs, but quite often it's some specific part. For example, guaranteed frisson-inducers for me are:

Around 2:40
Around 2:40 (amusing coincidence)
Beginning
Around 3:00

I also had no idea some people get that from eating food, haha ^^'

[underused]

Whoa, thank you for linking! After reading/hearing about "musical" frisson, I learned it's often just about one small passage or piece of a song. The points you chose fall right into line with the research, in that frisson tends to come with anticipation. Very cool.

In that fourth track at the 3 min mark, I think I got chills, too. Those vocals are amazing. (Also the bass in the second track--damn.)