I’m sure you’ve heard of dopamine, the brain’s “reward” neurotransmitter. Dopamine plays a very important role in musical enjoyment; however, it is only one piece of a much larger picture! There are many neurotransmitters and hormones that contribute to the different psychological and physiological effects of listening to music. They are dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins.
Before we get into the article, let’s first think about what neurotransmitters actually are. Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that allow neurons to communicate with one another. When one neuron sends a signal, neurotransmitters cross the synapse and bind to receptors on the next neuron. Different neurotransmitters influence different aspects of behavior, emotion, learning, and bodily functions. Music is unusual because it can activate many neurotransmitter systems at the same time.
Effects of music on serotonin and endorphins were researched in this article.
Effects of music on oxytocin were researched from this article.
Serotonin helps regulate mood, emotional stability, sleep, appetite, memory, and anxiety. Having healthy serotonin signaling is typically associated with feelings of calmness and emotional balance. Music influences serotonin function, and these effects include improved mood, reduced anxiety, increased emotional regulation, and decreased stress. Music may help stabilize emotional states by interacting with serotonin pathways. This could explain why people often use music to relax, recover after stress, or cope with difficult emotions. Music therapy has shown a lot of promise in improving mood for individuals with depression and anxiety, but it is a variety of factors that contribute to those effects, not serotonin alone.
Oxytocin is sometimes known as the “love hormone.” You might know it as a hormone that is actually released when you eat chocolate! It is involved in trust, empathy, social connection, cooperation, and even maternal bonding. Oxytocin is a hormone, but it also acts as a signaling molecule within the brain. Research shows that active music-making can increase oxytocin. This shows that the social benefits that come with group music-making do, in fact, give you a real boost.
Endorphins help the body reduce pain, increase pleasure, improve mood, and support exercise endurance. Studies show that after any type of active music-making, people often demonstrate higher pain tolerance, which suggests increased endorphin activity. Researchers believe that music can reduce pain by combining several things: music offers distraction, emotional comfort, expectation, activation of reward systems, as well as the release of endorphins. This is why music is sometimes used in hospitals before, during, and after medical procedures.
Most importantly, all of these neurotransmitters work together. Music rarely activates only one neurotransmitter. Instead, multiple systems interact. For example, listening to your favorite song may involve dopamine release, the anticipation of the music and the reward that comes from hearing it, serotonin, which helps regulate emotions, endorphins, which are released from the pleasure of listening to the song, and possibly oxytocin if you are sharing the experience of listening with others. Still, not everyone experiences the same neurochemical response. How you react to music depends on many factors, and everyone reacts differently.
There is no one “musical chemical” that makes us feel happy while listening to music—there are, in fact, so many! All of these help us have a really enjoyable experience while listening to music, and as scientists continue to study the effects that music has, music therapy will surely continue to grow and help even more people. Go listen to some music!
