Listening to new music can be good for the brain a new study has claimed.
A group of Canadian scientists found via MRI scans that parts of the reward centre of the brain become more active when exposed to new sounds.
The findings, which were reported in the Science journal, showed that activity in the nucleus accumbens area of the brain increases even more when the listener enjoys the music they hear.
A group of volunteers were played musical excerpts based on their musical preferences while hooked up to a MRI machine and were then given the chance to buy their preferred sounds in a mock download store.
Researchers found that the nucleus accumbens part of the brain lights up when active with the level of brightness indicating the enjoyment level of the listener.
Dr Valorie Salimpoor, from the Rotman Research Institute, in Toronto told the BBC: ‘We know that the nucleus accumbens is involved with reward. But music is abstract: It’s not like you are really hungry and you are about to get a piece of food and you are really excited about it because you are going to eat it – or the same thing applies to sex or money – that’s when you would normally see activity in the nucleus accumbens.
‘But what’s cool is that you’re anticipating and getting excited over something entirely abstract – and that’s the next sound that is coming up.’
Further research from the scientists is expected to examine how this brain activity drives musical taste.