Activity in a particular part of our brains while listening to new music reveals whether we enjoy the tune, and even how much we’d be willing to pay to hear it again. Neural activity in the nucleus accumbens
(NAcc), part of the brain’s ventral striatum, can predict how much a listener likes a particular piece of music when heard for the first time, according to research
published in Science. Researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging to observe neural activity in 19 participants as they listened to samples
of 60 musical selections they had not previously heard. While tuned in, the individuals could bid as high as $2.00 (Canadian) in a simulated online auction to purchase the music they enjoyed. Several areas of the brain showed increased activity when listening to the unfamiliar selections, including the amygdala and ventromedial prefontal regions, as well as, unsurprisingly, the auditory cortices. But researchers found ...
