This is What Happens to Your Brain When You Listen to Music

Music triggers different functions of the brain, which helps explain why listening to a song you like might be enjoyable but a favourite song may plunge you into nostalgia, scientists said.Neuroscientists in the United States used a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner to map brain activity in 21 young volunteers as they listened to different types of music, including rock, rap and classical.

They were played six songs, each five minutes long, four of them considered to be “iconic” to each genre, one song that was unfamiliar and one which they had identified as a favourite.

The scientists spotted patterns of activity that told when a volunteer liked or disliked what was being played. And they also noted a telltale signature that occurred when the favourite song popped up.