Some People Feel No Response Towards Music
Although listening to music is a fun activity worldwide, some people don’t feel anything towards it. This is known as Musical Anhedonia. Based on an experiment at the University of Barcelona, 3-5% of participants DID NOT feel anything toward the music that they played. Not even a tap of the foot, or a bounce of their head. People with this condition don’t have problems processing musical information, they just simply don’t enjoy musical stimulus. Though this phenomenon has been known for many years, the cause for it existing in only some people is unknown. In the study, researchers studied healthy volunteers using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The 45 volunteers were told to listen to extracts of musical pieces, and give evaluating scores from 1-4 in real time. They gave a popular psychological test to the participants where people can receive monetary incentives. The people who were indifferent to music did just fine, at the prospect of winning, showing higher heart rates and skin reactions. Some people just get pleasure from other things like food and money. They realized that people with Musical Anhedonia had lower activity in their nucleus accumbens, a part of the brain in the rewarding system.
Further Reading:
https://www.ub.edu/web/ub/en/menu_eines/noticies/2016/11/031.html?
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1611211113
https://www.ub.edu/web/ub/en/menu_eines/noticies/2014/03/016.html