Music

Researchers say music chills are basically 'skin orgasms'

by Richard Howard

As a music lover, you’re likely to have experienced “music chills” – that shiver up your spine or wave of pleasure felt all over when hearing a particularly moving piece of music. Most of us tend to describe it as the music ‘giving us goosebumps,’ but some researchers are arguing that this is a simplistic explanation of the biology at work. According to them, a more apt description would be – and I shit you not – a ‘skin orgasm.’

Utah State University PhD student Mitchell Colver received quite a bit of flack for using the term in his recently published paper. However, he maintains that the term is “highly accurate,” and points out that he’s not the first to use it with previous papers noting the phenomena “retains similar sensory, evaluative, and affective biological and psychological components to sexual orgasm.”

Come again? (I swear that’ll be the only orgasm pun.) Well, in addition to goosebumps, the experience (known as frisson) also consists of cerebral blood flow changes in brain regions believed to be connected to arousal and reward such as the ventral striatum, midbrain, amygdala and others. Getting a flashback from junior-high biology? That’s because the exact same thing happens in response to other euphoric events such as drug use and – you guessed it – sex.

Here’s something kind of messed up though; just like with sex, it appears some individuals are ‘unable to perform’ when it comes to frisson. While it’s unclear exactly what percentage, studies suggest some portion of the population are unable to experience music chills.

A hypothesis that seems to be supported by research is that a fairly self-explanatory personality trait known as Openness to Experience is a strong indicator of whether a person will be prone to music-induced ‘skin orgasms’ or not.

So parents, if your kids have unusually active imaginations and love beauty in nature, get your mind out the gutter when they yell: “Don’t come in, I’m listening to music!” They probably are — because they’re getting pretty much the same payoff as what you think they’re doing.

[h/t ScienceAlert]