Listening to your favorite music activates the brain’s opioid system with pleasurable and analgesic effects. A Finnish study revealed how it generates feelings of pleasure and provides potential benefits against pain. It’s a new perspective on the impact of this art form and could be used for treatments and psychological disorders.
Music is known to contribute to mental and emotional health. “Listening to it releases dopamine. A substance associated with pleasure, which is why we feel satisfaction when listening to our favorite music,” explained Jorgelina Benavídez, music therapist, M.N.269. Coordinator of the INECO Music Therapy Team, and director of the Department of Arts-Based Therapies at INECO.
Furthermore, if singing is added, “the hormones of happiness. Such as oxytocin and endorphins, will be released,” added the specialist. However, the brain mechanisms underlying musical enjoyment are still not fully understood.
A recent study from the PET Centre in Turku, Finland, demonstrated that listening to our favorite music activates opioid receptors in the brain. Influencing the function of the opioid system, which is responsible for pleasurable experiences related to survival. Such as eating and sex, and for pain relief. This finding, published in the European Journal of Nuclear Medicine. Provides new insight into how music can generate intense pleasure.
The study used positron emission tomography (PET) to measure opioid release in the brain while participants listened to their favorite music. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was also used to examine how the density of opioid receptors influences brain activation during the musical experience.
Music can evoke intense pleasure, sometimes even experienced physically as pleasurable shivers. The results indicated that opioid release was directly related to the intensity of the pleasurable chills experienced by the participants and to the number of opioid receptors in their brains.
Vesa Putkinen, a researcher at the University of Turku, explained: “These results demonstrate for the first time that listening to music activates the brain’s opioid system. The release of opioids explains why music can produce such intense feelings of pleasure. Even though it is not a primary reward necessary for survival or reproduction, like food or sexual pleasure,” she noted.
Furthermore, Professor Lauri Nummenmaa suggested that the analgesic effects could be related to the opioid responses produced by music. “The brain’s opioid system is also involved in pain relief. According to our findings, the analgesic effects of music observed earlier could be. Due to music-induced opioid responses in the brain,” she emphasized.
The study provides new insight into how the brain’s chemical systems regulate the pleasure derived from music. This advance has implications for future music-based interventions. Particularly in the treatment of pain and mental disorders.
In addition to pleasure, music can benefit memory and other cognitive functions. A 2023 study by psychologists at the University of California, Los Angeles. Revealed that the fluctuating emotions evoked by music play a crucial role in the formation of intense and lasting memories.
The researchers used melodies to manipulate the emotions of volunteers. As they performed simple tasks on a computer and discovered that these emotional variations transformed seemingly neutral experiences into memorable events.
Also this finding, published in the journal Nature Communications, could open new avenues for addressing disorders. Such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
The research focused on how emotions shape memory. A process that has remained an enigma for science. Memories, which are divided into individual episodes, form part of each person’s personal narrative.
According to researchers, music has the ability to influence this process by generating emotional changes. That separate and highlight certain moments, making them more vivid and lasting.
Ms. Benavidez explained: “Learning a musical instrument is very demanding on our brain because it particularly involves motor coordination. That is, all fine motor skills. Specifically, the visual cortex. There are many studies that have shown how studying a musical instrument is truly like exercise for our brain. As if we were learning a new language, promoting better cognitive function.”
Licensed musician Benavidez explained: “Learning a musical instrument is very demanding on our brain because it particularly involves motor coordination, that is, all fine motor skills. Specifically, the visual cortex.
Many studies have shown how studying a musical instrument is truly like exercise for our brain. Also as if we were learning a new language, promoting better performance and functioning of cognitive functions. Particularly attention and memory,” the music therapist concluded.
The knowledge about the link between music and memory is not new, but this study provided scientific evidence on how the emotions induced by melodies can directly influence the way events are stored and remembered.
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, observed that the emotional dynamics generated by music not only intensified memories but also separated them into distinct episodes, facilitating their later retrieval.
Article published in INFOBAE: https://www.infobae.com/salud/2025/05/06/escuchar-la-musica-favorita-activa-el-sistema-opioide-del-cerebro-con-efectos-placenteros-y-analgesicos/
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