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music

·September 3, 2025·5 min read

Cheerful Music Could Be the Cure for Carsickness

Researchers using a driving simulator found that music can significantly influence recovery from motion sickness. Participants who listened to joyful or soft music reported the greatest relief, while sad music hindered recovery.

This shows a person listening to music with the outline of other people in the background.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·August 30, 2025·6 min read

Music Sparks Social Imagination and Eases Loneliness

A large-scale study with 600 participants shows that music can genuinely evoke feelings of companionship by sparking social imagination. When participants listened to folk music, they imagined vivid social scenes such as being with friends, even when lyrics were removed.

This shows a person listening to music in a meditative pose, surrounded by psychedelic swirls.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·August 27, 2025·5 min read

Breathwork and Music Trigger Psychedelic-Like Bliss in the Brain

New research shows that practicing breathwork while listening to music can induce profound altered states of consciousness similar to those caused by psychedelics. Using self-reports and brain imaging, scientists found that HVB both activated the body’s stress response and increased blood flow to emotion-processing regions like the amygdala and hippocampus.

This shows a crowd of people in a musical venue with swirls around them.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·August 27, 2025·7 min read

Music Goosebumps Expose Unexpected Patterns in Belief

Aesthetic chills—goosebumps from music or art—are not just fleeting sensations but windows into human psychology. A large-scale study of over 8,000 people revealed that chills are tied to insight, self-transcendence, and even political leanings.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·August 24, 2025·6 min read

Music After Learning Boosts Memory, But Only at the Right Emotion Level

A new study reveals that listening to music immediately after an experience can enhance memory—if the emotional response is just right. Researchers found that volunteers who experienced moderate arousal while listening to music were better at recalling details, while those with stronger or weaker emotions remembered only the gist.

This shows a man with headphones on and musical notes swirling around him.

Auditory Neuroscience Featured Neuroscience

·August 20, 2025·5 min read

Songs Don’t Just Move Us, They Shape Memories

A new study reveals that different types of music shape the emotional tone of the memories they evoke. Acoustic, lower-energy songs often triggered personal memories filled with calmness, romance, and sadness, while energetic, less acoustic songs sparked memories of social fun, excitement, and amusement.

Auditory Neuroscience Featured Neuroscience

·August 13, 2025·5 min read

Musicians Show No Edge in Early Brain Sound Processing

A large-scale study challenges the long-held belief that musical training boosts the brain’s earliest stages of sound processing. Using a sample size over four times larger than earlier studies, researchers found no difference between musicians and non-musicians in subcortical auditory responses or in recognizing speech amid background noise.

This shows two people working and listening to music at the same time.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·August 10, 2025·6 min read

When Music Meets Attention: How Background Tunes Shape Focus

A new study compared background music listening habits between young adults with and without ADHD, revealing distinct patterns in when and what they listen to. ADHD-screened participants reported more frequent music use during both less demanding tasks and while studying, with a stronger preference for stimulating tracks.

This shows a person sitting alone, surrounded by floating musical notes.

Auditory Neuroscience Featured Neuroscience

·August 8, 2025·5 min read

When Music Falls Flat: Why Some Brains Don’t Enjoy Music

Some people feel absolutely nothing when listening to music—and not because of bad taste. A rare condition called specific musical anhedonia involves a disconnect between the brain's auditory and reward systems, making music emotionally flat even though other rewards like food or money still trigger pleasure.

This shows a child listening to music, surrounded by emotional emojis.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·August 8, 2025·5 min read

Music May Help Kids Understand Emotions, Even Without Empathy

Music plays a powerful role in how we perceive and express emotion—and a new study finds that even very young children can match emotions in music to facial expressions. Researchers studied 144 children aged 3 to 5 and found that emotion recognition improves with age.

Auditory Neuroscience Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·July 17, 2025·6 min read

Judging Music: Do We Trust Our Eyes More Than Our Ears?

A new study reveals that the “sight-over-sound” effect—where visual cues outweigh audio in judging music—depends heavily on the listener’s musical background. In experiments with Japanese brass band performances, general musicians relied more on visuals, while brass band specialists judged more accurately by sound alone.

This shows an older man listening to music.

Featured Neurology Neuroscience

·July 17, 2025·5 min read

Music Shows Promise in Easing Distress in Dementia

A new study highlights how music therapy can help ease severe distress in dementia patients on hospital wards. The MELODIC approach embeds a music therapist to deliver sessions and create personalized musical care plans for patients.