Stimulating neural pathways can influence how much you enjoy music, McGill study finds

By stimulating neural pathways,a team of Quebecresearchers was able in a recent experiment to influence how much a group a twenty-somethingsenjoyed their favourite music.

The results of the Montreal Neurological Institute study mightspurfeelings of mistrust ordystopianimages of mass-marketing mind control.

But as McGillprofessorAlainDaghertells it, the chances of this kind of technology being used to win over consumers is slim to none.

"We don't have an interest to use this method to help sell music," Dagher, a co-author of the study, told CBC's All in a Weekend.

Instead, he's hoping the process can be adapted to serve a more noble cause: in this caseas an alternative treatment for mental illnesses such asdepression or addiction.

How it works

Dagherand hisco-authors published the study last month inthe journal Nature Human Behaviour.

A group of 20 subjects in their20slistened to music selected by the researchers and rated how much they enjoyed it, how it made them feel and how likely they would be to go out and buy it.Their brain responses were also measured.

The researchers found they were able to make the test subjects feel more positive about the music by stimulating theirfronto-striatal pathways. When these pathways were inhibited, the subjects felt less positive.

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Researchers did this using a "non-invasive brain stimulation technique" calledtranscranialmagnetic stimulation (TMS). Basically,they usedmagnetic pulses to either stimulate or inhibit selected parts of the brain.

Listeners not only saidthey enjoyed the same song more or less based on the TMS, but the researchers were also able to measure a physical response that confirmed the self-reported findings.

"We measured their skin response because it measures emotional arousal, like a lie detector machine," saidDagher.

Potential applications

So while this sounds like a perfect way to market a product to an unwilling consumer,Daghersays that's not a likely outcome of the research.

The TMS machine is big,bulky and immobile, and it isn't capable of changing a listener's taste completely, just making small enhancements or adjustments in perception.

It hasn't yet been proven whether the TMS has the ability to make someone enjoy a piece of music, or even a genre, they normally wouldn't. Dagher says that would require more testing.

The music used in the experiment was selected from genres the participants already professed to liking.

The only reasonthe team asked about willingness to buy was to monitor how much the subject was moved to action by the "emotional arousal."

Daghersaidthe results could affect how technology is used to treat diseases that are related to motivation, desire and apathy.

He suggested inhibiting an addict's brain when it responds to cues like drugs or alcohol or stimulating a depressed person's braincould prove effective when combined with behavioural therapies.