Listening to music by Adele or Leonard Cohen can give the listener a biological reaction called a ‘skin orgasm’, a new report has claimed.
Psyche Loui, a psychologist at Wesleyan University, has published a report stating that music has ‘a unique power to elicit moments of intense emotional and psychophysiological response’.
The songs most likely to induce this feeling include Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No 2, Adele’s Someone Like You and Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.
According to the study, music can be so powerful that the listener feels a physical sensation, from sweating to sexual arousal. The experts call this sensation ‘frisson’ or ‘skin orgasm’.
In the study, the researchers said: ‘The term implies a pleasurable sensation that is paradoxically both universal and variable.
‘It affects different parts of the body depending on the person and circumstances of induction, and retains similar sensory, evaluative, and affective biological and psychological components to sexual orgasm.’
Commenting further, the study said: ‘Frisson is a correct and more neutral alternative. The word combines emotional intensity with palpable sensations not reserved to any one area of the body.
‘Its relative specificity and obscurity in popular culture allow it to avoid loaded cultural association.’
Visit the Frontiers in Psychology website to read the full report.
Psyche Loui, a psychologist at Wesleyan University, has published a report stating that music has ‘a unique power to elicit moments of intense emotional and psychophysiological response’.
The songs most likely to induce this feeling include Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No 2, Adele’s Someone Like You and Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.
According to the study, music can be so powerful that the listener feels a physical sensation, from sweating to sexual arousal. The experts call this sensation ‘frisson’ or ‘skin orgasm’.
In the study, the researchers said: ‘The term implies a pleasurable sensation that is paradoxically both universal and variable.
‘It affects different parts of the body depending on the person and circumstances of induction, and retains similar sensory, evaluative, and affective biological and psychological components to sexual orgasm.’
Commenting further, the study said: ‘Frisson is a correct and more neutral alternative. The word combines emotional intensity with palpable sensations not reserved to any one area of the body.
‘Its relative specificity and obscurity in popular culture allow it to avoid loaded cultural association.’
Visit the Frontiers in Psychology website to read the full report.
