01/05/2025

LYFE THURSDAY | MAY 1, 2025

25

Music triggers your brain chemistry

o Tunes can bring pleasure, soothe pain T HERE is a good chance you have experienced a thrill running down your spine when you listen to your favourite song. What if this ecstasy, intense and difficult to describe, had its roots in humans’ neurochemistry? That is precisely what a Finnish study published in the European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging revealed. It argued that music directly activates the brain’s opioid system, the same network involved in the fundamental pleasures associated with our survival. To explore this mystery, Finnish researchers at the Turku PET Centre sought to understand what actually happens in our brains when we listen to a song we like. Their study used a dual brain imaging technique. First, they used positron emission tomography on around 15 volunteers with an average age of 26. This technique measures chemical activity in the brain by tracking the release of certain substances, such as opioids. On the other hand, the researchers performed functional MRI scans on the same participants to record changes in blood flow and thus locate the areas of the brain activated when they were listening to music. The results are unequivocal: listening to your favourite music triggers the release of opioids in several areas of the brain associated with pleasure. This phenomenon is even more pronounced in people who report experiencing “music-induced chills”, intense feelings of pleasure that can be accompanied by goose bumps, tingling or sudden emotions. SOME could be forgiven for thinking that black metal bands are nothing but frustrated make-up artists with an unhealthy obsession with the occult and Sir Lucifer. Peel away the layers of corpse paint though, one will find bands with a deep respect for nature. This is most apparent when listening to the first wave of Norwegian black metal. Those pioneers of the genre were keen to illustrate the beauty of their ice cold surroundings with album art reflecting silent forests with silhouettes of trees piercing night skies conveying a profound respect for these bands’ surroundings. Such an aesthetic has been adopted by later bands, most notably by American outfit Wolves in the Throne Room (WITTR). Formed by siblings Aaron and Nathan Weaver in 2002 in the fog-covered vistas of Olympia, Washington, WITTR’s musical concept was to transfer “energies of the Pacific Northwest’s landscape” into musical form. Ű BY R BALA

Listening to your favourite music triggers the release of opioids in several areas of the brain associated with pleasure. – PEXELSPIC

Integrating into treatments for pain or mental disorders is no longer a far-fetched idea, but a serious avenue supported by neuroscience. Behind the magic of a simple melody, there is a whole chemical orchestration at work in our brains. Perhaps that is a great reason to put your headphones back on, close your eyes and let yourself be carried away by the universal, mysterious and deeply human pleasure that is music. – ETX Studio music

“The brain’s opioid system is also involved in pain relief. Based on our findings, the previously observed pain-relieving effects of music may be due to music induced opioid responses in the brain,” explained professor Lauri Nummenmaa. These discoveries could well change the way we think about music in the field of health. In addition to improving our understanding of the mechanisms of musical pleasure, they pave the way for innovative therapeutic approaches.

music activates the brain’s opioid system. The release of opioids explains why music can produce such strong feelings of pleasure, even though it is not a primary reward necessary for survival or reproduction, such as food or sexual pleasure,” explained University of Turku researcher Vesa Putkinen in a statement. Much more than just a source of pleasure, music also has an amazing power to soothe. Long observed by researchers, this analgesic effect now has a neuromodulator explanation. The three tracks on offer encapsulate the band’s vision as well as what was to come next. Queen of the Borrowed Light announces the arrival of a band that can thrash with the best but also one that has something a bit more to offer apart from relentless speed and aggression. Dagger of Amesthyst Crystal is a spellbinding weave of a track that features all the usual black metal elements of anguished screams and dissonant guitars churning to create a perfect aural maelstrom. The multiple shades and varying tones is best captured on A Shimmering Radiance , which clocks in at an almighty 25 minutes, taking listeners on an epic and immersive journey. Black metal fans who feel that the genre has become a tad too polished will welcome the release of this demo. Raw, uncompromising and totally brutal, it is indeed a throwback to the genre’s early years. But at the same time, the epic scale of the songs hint at the grand ambition lurking within.

The more frequent these chills were, the higher the activity in the relevant areas of the brain. In addition, the density of opioid receptors, which varies from person to person, directly influences how the brain responds to music. Painkiller without side effects In other words, the more opioid receptors we have, the stronger our emotional response to our favourite songs. “These results show for the first time directly that listening to The band’s first recording was its 2005 demo – a black CD-R wrapped in fur with moss inside the lyric sheet, which caused a stir in the metal underground. To date, WITTR has released seven full-length albums, two EPs and two live recordings but it all began with that initial demo. Fans who missed out on its original release back in the day can now rejoice as WITTR has re-released this seismic recording. The band’s ambition and scope is all too apparent even on this early stab at atmospheric black metal. Although it only features three songs, the running time spans over 50 minutes and is reflective of the band’s sense of musical adventure. First off, a note of warning as it is a demo, the sound is far from polished and the drums, in particular, lack the punch of later professional studio efforts. However, as far as demos goes, the sound quality is pretty acceptable and is even superior to those produced in the nascent black metal scene from northern Europe in the late 80s.

Re-visiting demo days of Wolves

Wolves in the Throne Room brings the gloom of the US Pacific Northwest to stereos worldwide. – PIC FROM FACEBOOK @WOLVESINTHETHRONEROOM