Abstract

Music is a ubiquitous source of what is perhaps a pleasure only available to humans. Similar to any other reward, music can lead to subjective feelings and objective hedonic reactions as part of complex emotional responses. Through neuroscientific methods, we may now take the first steps toward understanding brain processing of music and in particular the neuronal components of the pleasurable aspects of music such as chills and groove. We propose that music fundamentally relies on predictive mechanisms to bring about the pleasure of music, which is often felt as deeply meaningful and as such linked to well-being.