![]() ![]() Your brain develops during these years, and so it stands to reason that the music you listened to as a teenager becomes quite literally formative. And there are neurological explanations for this. When it comes to the relationship between nostalgia and music, something researchers know for sure is that the music we listened to as teenagers will continue to be incredibly influential on us for the rest of our lives. University of Melbourne neuropsychologist Amee Baird has even found that couples with a “special song” that signifies an important moment in their relationship will strengthen their bond-and possibly even alleviate the effects of dementia-by listening to it together and reminiscing. And some songs will prompt nostalgia over more specific scenarios: important life events, like your first kiss or that particularly wild house party your best friend threw to celebrate the end of school exams. Music can provoke general recollections, for example the feeling of what it was like to be a child, or a uni student. A landmark 1999 study showed that music has enormous power to evoke memories in the listener. You know, some Seth Cohen-approved song from The OC soundtrack comes on at a party and suddenly you’re thinking about making mix CDs for your crush. Which means that as you hear a song, you’ll start associating it with memories or other images almost immediately. ![]() Perhaps most crucially, listening to music lights up the brain’s visual cortex. Scientists have even found that babies can do it from birth. We’re very good at recognising music that we’ve heard before, and associating it with certain memories. Furthermore, hearing the same songs over and over-especially during particularly memorable events or formative periods in our lives-can make them stick, sometimes for life. Neuroimaging has shown that songs stimulate many different areas of the brain, and give us a big hit of dopamine while they’re at it. This is because music makes human beings incredibly nostalgic. ![]()
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