Psychology Facts

▼ Musical Anhedonia ▼

(Just found out I mightttt have this)

》Musical anhedonia is a neurological condition characterized by an inability to derive pleasure from music. People with this condition, unlike those suffering from music agnosia, can recognize and understand music but fail to enjoy it

There are two types.

The first type, known as "musical anhedonia without brain damage", manifests itself in individuals that do not present any neurological damage.

The second type is known as "acquired musical anhedonia". It is this form that develops as a result of brain damage. The incidence of this second form is even lower, and most studies of it focus on individual cases.

》Research has shown that people with this condition have reduced functional connectivity between the cortical regions responsible for processing sound and the subcortical regions related to reward

》This suggests that there are different ways of accessing the reward system and it seems that we each have stimuli to which we respond and others to a lesser extent,

》For some people, musical anhedonia is a life-long trait, while in other cases it may be a response to trauma or a symptom of disorders like depression. It could be something that changes over time, or something you're stuck with. Some don't miss listening to music, while others really, really do.

》In a study people with specific musical anhedonia showed a reduced emotional arousal as indexed by autonomic nervous system activity [in particular, skin conductance response (SCR) and heart rate measurements] compared with people having standard or high sensitivity to music. Notably, they showed normal responses to other types of reward [e.g., money]

》At present, there are no treatments aimed at anhedonia. It is commonly treated alongside the condition that it is part of — for instance, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are often prescribed for individuals with depression.