音乐的作用可能真的因人而异

3月6号《当代生物学》刊发了西班牙Bellvitge生物医学研究所认知和脑科学可塑性小组Ernest Mas-Herrero等人的研究.发现”音乐快感缺乏组”(BMRQ问卷)被试听欢快音乐时感受的欢愉程度,皮肤电和心跳反应都显著低于其他组.但是对金钱奖赏的欢愉反应则无组间差异.这说明音乐的作用可能真的因人而异.

Music has been present in all human cultures since prehistory [1, 2], although it is not associated with any apparent biological advantages (such as food, sex, etc.) or utility value (such as money). Nevertheless, music is ranked among the highest sources of pleasure [3], and its important role in our society and culture has led to the assumption that the ability of music to induce pleasure is universal. However, this assumption has never been empirically tested. In the present report, we identified a group of healthy individuals without depression or generalized anhedonia who showed reduced behavioral pleasure ratings and no autonomic responses to pleasurable music, despite having normal musical perception capacities. These persons showed preserved behavioral and physiological responses to monetary reward, indicating that the low sensitivity to music was not due to a global hypofunction of the reward network. These results point to the existence of specific musical anhedonia and suggest that there may be individual differences in access to the reward system.