Classical music lifts a person’s mood by improving brain connections The music caused stronger interactions between regions related to sound and pleasure Adding low-frequency sound to music increased people’s enjoyment of it MONDAY, Aug. 12, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Does listening to classical music make you feel sublime? A new study suggests there might be a scientific reason for that: Researchers discovered that the music lifts a person’s mood by improving connections between brain regions related to both sound and pleasure. How? Music synchronizes brain waves between the auditory cortes, which processes sound, and the rewards circuit that processes emotional information, according to findings published Aug.
9 in the journal . The study focused on a brain circuit connecting two areas of the forebrain -- the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) and the nucleus accumbens (NAc) A group of 13 patients with treatment-resistant depression already had electrodes implanted in this circuit for the purpose of deep-brain stimulation, researchers explained. “The BNST-NAc circuit, sometimes referred to as part of the ‘extended amygdala,’ underscores the close relationship between this circuit and the amygdala, a central structure in emotional information processing,” said senior researcher , director of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Center for Functional Neurosurgery.
In the study, patients listened to the third movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, “re.