music, trance, and brain chemistry question

[faustian bargin]

is anyone familiar with trances and brain chemistry, and sound/rhythm/music's influence on them?

the reason i ask is, some of the music i listen to seems to generate relaxing surges of SOMETHING (serotonin?) when i play it. mostly this is trance music (hence the moniker).

the cause of the 'warm fuzzies' seems to be some combination of white noise and oscillations in the sound of some sort. right/left channel, phase inversion, i dunno. i know it when i hear it, but i can't name the effect(s)

if anyone has any insight into this phenomenon, i'm really curious about it. it's fascinating.


/andrew - is becoming addicted to trance

[Christer]

Yes, it seems generally accepted in sound therapy that serotonin
and possibly other signal substances are affected by music.
There is even a study on chicken on this topic. This is a piece
of text I found on the internet while searchin around for such
things a few years ago.

(7) An Animal Model of Auditory Integration Training
M. Waldhoer, J. Panksepp, D. Pruitt, M. Vaningan, D. McKee, J. Rossi III,
and J. Lindsey
Bowling Green State University & Toxicology, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Paper presented at the Annual Society for Neuroscience Convention, San
Diego, 1995.

This study was undertaken as a result of the positive findings seen in an
earlier study conducted by these authors (see #5). Auditory integration
training (AIT) was given to newborn domestic chicks, selected as the species
of choice because of their responsivity to sounds. Starting at 2 days of
age, subjects participated in one of three groups--AIT
(experimental), music (control 1, same music as the AIT group but not
processed), and silence (control 2). Following AIT, those in the
experimental group exhibited an increase in growth and a reduced inhibition
to separation-induced vocalizations in response to music. Post-mortem
analysis of the brain tissue indicated reduced serotonin and 5-HIAA levels
in the two music groups (experimental and control 1). In addition, an
analysis of the behavioral effect of cyproheptadine, a general serotonin
antagonist, yielded comparable behavioral effects. The data suggest that AIT
may modify serotonergic tone in the brain.

[faustian bargin]

that's pretty cool info.

but what *kind* of sounds? why does some music simply sound pleasant, while others induces this physical effect?

[Sch3mat1c]

Now you're getting into the artsy-fartsy side of things.

Heck...some absolutely reject it, but to my ears, a lot of Metallica is awesome music

Tim

[faustian bargin]

i like metallica too. bit hard for me to relax to though, in general.

here's one little link i found:

clicky clicky

/andrew - will look for others

[eimo]

some music scientifically has the effect of physically affecting the brain and energizing emotions.. i have been researching in this study for some time.. i do face a lot of biological terminology that gets things stuck in the direction of my research though! a further explanation of the trance brain state would be quite appreciated.

for those interrested, u can check this link and read under the subtitle" The Didjeridoo, the Mammalian Brain and the Ritual Circle ":
http://www.hermes3.net/firetribedidj.htm
this website is owned by Dan Furst, an american musician and music "healer"..

[ShinOBIWAN]

I've recently become stuck on Perasma Swing 2 Harmony and it has a nice feel good factor to it.

Gotta laugh, I spend buckets of money on kit then listen to compressed low quality dance

[KBK]

I listen almost exclusively, right now, to "galaxy 931" on the Bell network satellite music channels. All trance/ambient, 24/7. Very low amount of vocals.

As for that fuzzy feeling, that's the edge of your 'playing' with Kundalini energy. Be very very careful here.

Read up on chakras and proper energy release. You are playing with the crown chakra is my guess. Most people start there, as a point of 'recognizing' that something is 'going on', but you'll have to do some serious reading to get to the 'bottom' of it.

You won't understand that joke for a while.

Congratulations. You've scrabbled at the doorway and opened it ...just a bit. Be careful, what's behind it is deep, and like bursting a dam for most people. You've made it far further than most people. And if you've done it on your own and recognize it as 'something', then I'd say you have a natural gift (many people born in the 80's and onward have the 'gift'. Look up 'indigo children')...and should pursue it. It is likey to end up being the most rewarding experiences of your life, period.

There are parts that won't be pretty, though. Nothing comes for free.

[richie00boy]

Interesting thread.

those in the experimental group exhibited an increase in growth and a reduced inhibition to separation-induced vocalizations in response to music.

I'm a bit stuck on what that means in laymans terms though. The chickens that went clubbing grew more, and when the music was taken away they squawked 'till it came back on? (one more, encore )

[Christer]

Originally posted by richie00boy

I'm a bit stuck on what that means in laymans terms though. The chickens that went clubbing grew more, and when the music was taken away they squawked 'till it came back on? (one more, encore )

I didn't get that either. I was primarily interested in the post-mortem findings in the brains. That one puzzles me a bit too, though. The serotonin levels were reduced in the experiment group, but since music therapy is supposed to be anti-depressive, wouldn't we rather have expeted an increased level of serotonin? But maybe I am misunderstanding the biochemistry, or what they mean by the claim?