Throughout recorded history in every culture around the globe, music has existed in one form or another. Listening to favorite music has been universally accepted as a pleasurable and often relaxing experience. For years, scientists have pondered why music plays such a large and important role in life. But recently, a group of neuroscientists, led by Canadian researcher Valorie Salimpoor, discovered music elicits the same reaction in the brain as the use of cocaine or downing a delicious meal would.

A group of scientists, from The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital at McGill University, discovered listening to pleasurable music causes the brain to release dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain that reinforces gratifying behavior. The group found that dopamine was released when those listening to music reached peak emotional arousal, a finding the team expected. However, the group also discovered the anticipation of hearing pleasurable music can induce a dopamine release, a result Salimpoor and her team consider to be the most important finding in the study. The Chronicle’s Interactive Media Editor, Bethany Reinhart-Buonsante, tells us more.