Rey:

Certain songs make the hairs on my forearms and back of my neck rise, and I discovered a few years ago that some people lack something in their ears or brains that prevents this from happening, and so they don’t feel music as much.

Oh, it’s called frisson. A French word I think. Frisson is most commonly triggered by unexpected harmonies, dynamic shifts, crescendo, or emotionally charged moments in songs… that lift, that drop, that sudden silence.

What’s crazy (and kind of fascinating) is that some people don’t experience it. Their neural wiring just doesn’t generate that somatic response to music. No chills. No shivers. Just… ears doing their job and nothing else.

That’s tragic.

I looked into it a bit more and…it seems like aome research has linked this phenomenon to dopamine release in regions of the brain like the nucleus accumbens and amygdala. People who feel frisson strongly tend to have more dense neural connectivity between their auditory cortex and areas involved in emotional processing.

I guess that’s what that “moment” was. ✨

Me:

I *just* read yesterday that some people don't enjoy music, along with some scientific explanation the phenomenon. Their explanation was that people who don't enjoy music are found to have less neural pathway between the audio processing center of their brains and the reward center or whatever related center.

Rey:

Oh wow, what a coince. 😂

Me:

*nod*. the term is apparently 'music anhedonia.'

Me:

i think it's important to say about the meaning or cause of music anhedonia that a neurochemical explanation barely functions as an explanation. it's like not a complete explanation and likely doesn't address the originating or most important causes. this observation applies to all neurochemical explanations of behavior or at least applies to them in general.

the problem is that, if the person has less/no pathway between the auditory processing center and the emotional processing center, or the reward center, or whatever, the more salient question is, why do they have less or no pathway? and the answer probably isn't just another mechanical biological fact. brain traits don't really -explain- personality traits as much as they are -synchronous- with them. a similar thing could probably be said about brain states vis a vis cognition, emotion, etc. in general.

so, i think it's likely that the person has less/no pathway because it's encoded in their personality or soul or whatever to not want to bother to create such a pathway, or to not be able to, or to not know how, or whatever. more tautologically or circularly, i could say that the person having no/less pathway there is essentially a scientistic or naturalistic or reductionistic restatement/observation of the very fact that they're just 'not interested in music.'

and another, related issue here is that, when i mentioned no/less pathway to the 'reward center' of the brain (maybe i misremembered and it was the emotional center like you said, but either way), i strongly suspect the 'reward center' of the brain is a highly misleading misnomer. they just call it that because the prevailing scientistic, evolutionary-psychological explanation of any happiness or pleasure or fulfillment at all is a function of 'reward' for doing things that are ultimately conducive to surviving and spreading our genes.

i'd bet all they really know is that 'activity in this section of the brain is correlated with reported feelings of happiness, pleasure, etc.', and the meaning of happiness actually remains a legit mystery.

Me:

Edit:

In addition to inherent soul or personality traits behind the pathways being present or missing, there could have been certain influences or habits in one's early, formative years that caused it.

Oh, and one more thing: how do they know if there's a pathway between those two regions of the brain or not? mapping out actual neural connections in a brain is not an easy thing and not routinely done, afaik. so, do they just conclude that there is no pathway if audio processing activity doesn't lead to emotional processing activity? if so, then the conclusion htat it's about a lack of pathway is even more dubious, and my 'tautological or circular' comment applies even more.