"This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I'm On This Song"

And to think that System Of A Down figured it out first...

That song title juxtaposes the order, but not necessarily the feeling.  And now scientists McGill University in Montreal are coming to that conclusion. Published in Nature Neuroscience, their study claims that hearing good music (or even eating good food) can trigger feelings of euphoria that your brain soon grows attached to. Oh, sweet dopamine! The folks in lab coats say:

"If music-induced emotional states can lead to dopamine release, as our findings indicate, it may begin to explain why musical experiences are so valued. These results further speak to why music can be effectively used in rituals, marketing or film to manipulate hedonistic states. Our findings provide neurochemical evidence that intense emotional responses to music involve ancient reward circuitry and serve as a starting point for more detailed investigations of the biological substrates that underlie abstract forms of pleasure."

Does that also explain why I have a bad trip when shitty music from Train plays? Not entirely. Participants had to choose instrumental pieces of music that "gave them goosebumps", and that had no specific memories attached to them. Lyrics were banned because the researchers did not want their results effected any associations to the words they heard. The pieces chosen ranged from classical to rock, punk and electronic dance music.

So what can you take away from this? You're probably going to get high if you listen to MAGNA.