Some people do not experience any pleasure in listening to music according to the results of this survey published in the specialized journal Current Biology.
Music has been present in all human cultures since prehistoric times. Although it has no utilitarian value like money or survival value like food and sex, it is generally associated with pleasure. According to a widespread idea, music is a source of universal pleasure. However, this claim has never been scientifically verified.
Researchers from the University of Barcelona wanted to understand if this pleasure was really shared by everyone.
Anhedonia is a medical symptom found in certain psychiatric disorders. It is manifested by the patient’s inability to feel positive emotions during life situations that are nevertheless considered “normally” as pleasant.
Music anhedonia logically concerns people who suffer from hearing and perception disorders and a general dysfunction of the reward circuit, that is to say people who are not very sensitive in general.
The scientists wanted to determine if there were people in good health, without psychic disorders or general anhedonia, unable to feel pleasure while listening to music.
Music would not be a universal pleasure
Scientists conducted two experiments with a group of 10 people. The witnesses had to first assess the pleasure felt while listening to music. They then completed a task that earned them money. Meanwhile, the researchers analyzed their emotional indicators like heart rate.
They concluded that “some people in good health and without psychic disorders experience no pleasure in listening to music, despite normal perception of sounds and normal sensitivity to reward”. The results of this study allow the researchers to affirm that “there are individual differences in access to the reward system” and that “these new elements can explain certain pathologies such as drug addiction and affective disorders.
