Why Do We Like the Music We Like?

Musical preferences develop through learning rather than being fixed at birth. Rhythm and melody become emotional experiences when the brain predicts upcoming sounds and compares them with what actually occurs. Auditory regions generate predictions about timing and frequency patterns and communicate them to the limbic reward prediction error system. When the music matches expectations, reward signals support liking; when it differs, prediction errors generate emotions and feelings. Liking or disliking specific music also depends on intact connections between auditory and limbic brain regions. Music therefore trains the brain’s predictive abilities, a skill important for survival.

"According to predictive coding, the musical qualities we learn to value inform a certain brain system which musical elements to reward. This system, located in the limbic region of the brain, is called the reward prediction error system (RPE), or simply the reward system. The RPE responds to predictions about the musical features we anticipate for two key reasons. First, the auditory cortex and the reward system are highly connected to one another. Second, a key role of the human brain is to forecast what will happen next; its ability to predict the next musical note is an expression of this function."

"As we listen to music, the auditory regions of the brain make predictions about upcoming sounds and share those predictions with the reward system. The RPE becomes active when the actual music differs from what was anticipated. This mismatch generates emotions and feelings. In other words, the brain’s prediction process turns basic elements of music into sentiments (emotions and feelings) by linking expected sound patterns to reward and emotional responses."

"How does the brain turn the basic elements of music into sentiments (emotions and feelings)? How do rhythm and melody - timing and frequency patterns of sound waves - become experiences of joy, sadness, excitement, or comfort? According to predictive coding, the musical qualities we learn to value inform a certain brain system which musical elements to reward. The learned value of musical features guides which patterns the brain treats as rewarding."

"Liking or disliking certain music also requires intact connection between auditory and limbic brain regions. If those connections are disrupted, the brain may not properly link predicted auditory input with reward prediction error signaling. This connection is central to how musical features become emotionally meaningful, because the reward system depends on auditory predictions to generate the prediction-error signals that produce feelings."

Read at Psychology Today