There is a word that describes this common human response to music — a word for “that moment” when a song pierces your body and soul. It’s called “frisson."
In 1991, psychologist John Sloboda conducted a landmark study identifying musical structures, like sudden harmonic shifts or melodic leaps, that reliably triggered physical reactions such as goosebumps. These moments aligned with emotional peaks, suggesting that frisson is not random but tied to specific compositional elements that heighten emotional arousal.
Sloboda’s findings revealed that individuals who experience frisson tend to have stronger emotional responses to music overall. This sensitivity correlates with increased activity in brain regions like the amygdala and ventral striatum, which process reward and emotion. His work helped establish frisson as a legitimate physiological and psychological phenomenon, paving the way for neuroimaging studies that confirmed its link to dopamine release and emotional intensity.
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