The brains of people who experience frisson have unique neural pathways

Music may give some of us the chills and goose bumps—perhaps because it shocks us

The science is still unsettled about why music can trigger a chill down your spine, formally known as frisson, but one theory is that anything surprising to the nervous system—including sudden beat drops or unexpected harmonies—stimulates a type of alarm response that gives rise to this feeling.

50 years of research has focused on unraveling the relationship between music and frisson

One insight reveals that musical passages with surprising volume changes or unexpected harmonies and beauty are more likely to trigger frisson, perhaps because they upend listeners' expectations.

Some of us can control our goose bumps

A small 2018 study examined the rare ability to control goose bumps. Researchers found some intriguing associations between having a particularly open and curious personality type and the ability to trigger this sensation—a link that they hope will be explored further in the future.

There’s a lot we still don’t know about goose bumps in humans

Though goose bumps can be associated with changes in skin temperature, the biggest gaps in our understanding are around measuring goose bumps from nonthreatening exposures. These bumps can often occur without our detection, and we have trouble correctly identifying them. The relationship between emotionally induced chills and goose bumps can also be tenuous.

Scientists have unraveled new details about which nerve cells control goose bumps

Research in 2016 revealed that at least eight different types of neurons are associated with the sympathetic nervous system. One finding revealed that goose bumps and nipple erection are caused by neurons specialized to regulate these specific functions by controlling the erectile muscles in those tissues.

Goose bumps are often triggered by emotions

A physiologist and professor of zoology explains that the subconscious release of adrenaline, a stress hormone, causes a contraction of skin muscles. It’s released in several situations, including when humans are cold, afraid, or feel strong emotions. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Audio and visual cues from "Titanic," Pink Floyd, and more can provoke goose bumps

These audio and visual snippets have been used in research studies to elicit goose bumps.

Humans accurately detect their goose bumps only about one-third of the time.

Goose bumps require a surprisingly complex series of steps

Watch an anatomical breakdown of how goose bumps work—featuring real skin from a human cadaver, a segmented brain, and a detailed anatomical model of the skin—to learn about all the jargon behind goose bump science. (Warning: Includes graphic footage of cadaver skin.)

Rodent research suggests goose bumps may play a role in hair growth—raising questions about if this knowledge could be used to reactive sympathetic nerves in hair follicles to boost hair growth in people.

Playing music enhances the creation, storage, and retrieval of memories

Scans of the brains of individuals who play instruments have shown enhanced connectivity between multiple brain regions—visual, auditory, and motor cortices—and the corpus callosum, which connects the two brain hemispheres. These complex connections are strengthened through practice and then used in other activities that involve both logic and creativity. The brains of musicians also appear to give experiences multiple types of memory tags, such as audio, emotional, and conceptual, improving their processing.

The anatomy of our hair follicles explains goose bumps

The arrector pili muscle contracts when we're cold or scared, causing hairs to stand up and the skin to form the bumps known as goose bumps. This reaction is typically involuntary.

Fearology, or the study of fear, explores the difference between stress and fear

Our brains involuntarily respond to our environment and signal alarm when that isn't always needed, triggering responses that include goose bumps. But understanding fear and how to talk our brains into calming down can improve daily life.

Long-term goose bumps are something to flag to your doctor

Although rarely a cause for concern, persistent goose bumps with no known cause could be a symptom of something to discuss with your doctor, including anxiety, a hair follicle blockage, or conditions that arise from an overreaction of the autonomic nervous system.

Individuals with synesthesia experience involuntarily overlapping sensations

Tasting words or seeing colors in music results from the brain retaining extrasensory connections from infancy. While most lose these neural pathways during development, about 4% of people are synesthetes, maintaining them without realizing it's unusual.

Artificial goose bumps could theoretically be used for information storage

Inspired by how fine hairs stand on the skin with goose bumps, researchers have recently created artificial skin that raises artificial goose bumps when exposed to a laser. This type of precise, localized, and controllable system could potentially fuel later development of programmable machines that could be used for information storage.

Why do you shiver when cold?

Humans are warm-blooded creatures, so our bodies like to maintain internal temperatures separate from and typically above those in their environment. This is made possible by a process known as thermoregulation. When the brain's hypothalamus senses a drop in the body's core temperature, skeletal muscles may be ordered to shiver, sending out waves of muscle contractions and exothermic biochemical reactions whose byproduct includes heat and energy.

Charles Darwin studied goose bumps by scaring zoo animals in London with a stuffed snake

Read the famous naturalist’s work from the late 1800s, detailing how he sought to draw comparisons between how animals and humans respond to fear. As part of that work, he exposed monkeys and a peccary to a stuffed snake and noted the animals’ hair-raising fear response.

The science of fear

The Hidden Brain podcast team explores the science of fear by traveling to a haunted house curated by a scientist to investigate what scares us, and why some people enjoy this sensation more than others.

The neuroscience of heartbreak

An analysis of functional MRIs revealed a difficult fact: the active brain areas of people experiencing heartbreak were very similar to those actively in love. This is a major reason why people in the middle of rejection can't accept the reality of their loss. This article breaks down the various changes in neurotransmitters and neural pathways for those enduring that universal experience, heartbreak.

Music that builds to a crescendo and then resolves relieves stress more than listening to nature sounds.

Researchers are studying roller coasters to improve mental health treatments

Scary rides stimulate our fight-or-flight response while simultaneously releasing feel-good endorphins like dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin. Once we realize we're in a safe space, we can enjoy the ride and even feel confident and relieved by the accomplishment of overcoming a fearful feat.

Why so many people love roller coasters even though they’re scary

When a threat arises, it triggers our bodies to go into fight-or-flight mode and prepare for danger. However, when no obvious threat to our safety is present, this natural high can become enjoyable. Some people are more likely to enjoy these thrills based on factors like individual brain chemistry or physical health.

Explore the biology of pain and why the experience of pain may differ widely from one person to another.

Brain activity sometimes goes into overdrive around the point of death according to researchers' recent analysis of patients' brains before and after they were taken off their ventilators.

Examining self-diagnosed synesthesia

A growing number of people on social media claim to have a perceptual condition that lets them smell colors, see music, or taste sounds. But do they really?

How science explains déjà vu

Take a fun look at the science explaining the odd experience of déjà vu, which some theories suggest is actually a sign of a healthy brain.

Nine different studies exploring animals' relationship to music

Researchers have conducted multiple studies attempting to answer a certain question: do animals like human music? Across species, they observed different results and no clear pattern. Primates appear to prefer silence, and cockatoos appear to dance to funky beats.

Neural replays in mice help explain food aversions

Princeton University scientists published research in 2025 analyzing how mice learn to associate certain foods or flavors with feeling ill—even when there’s a time gap between eating something and feeling sick. The work, performed with grape Kool-Aid and injections of a substance that made mice sick, traced the literal “gut reaction” of how gut distress signals are linked to neural replays of what the mouse ate.

The science of spring fever

Researchers have confirmed what people have sensed for ages: Our emotions during the springtime can go a little wild. This piece breaks down the impact of the seasonal transition on our bodies and prescribes a few ways to mitigate the effects.

The "reminiscence bump" causes memories from adolescence to last

Research shows that the "reminiscence bump" phenomenon, which applies to memories formed between the ages of 10 and 30, contributes to songs from those ages triggering the most intense nostalgia. This may be due to biological and hormonal changes enhancing memory effectiveness during adolescence.

Can music alter your memories?

You’re familiar with music’s ability to transport you to a past experience, but new research suggests that music can even alter how you remember your past experiences. A team of psychology researchers and music experts recently published a study that demonstrates how music can help shift our emotional recollection of a memory. Read to learn more about the study’s findings and how it could influence therapy practices.

The body's response to cardiac arrest has been linked to near-death experiences.

Like fingerprints, brain anatomy is unique too

Researchers have discovered that a combination of experiences and genetic factors shape the anatomy of the human brain. They found even quick experiences affect the brain’s genetic makeup, which—over time—means every person develops a completely unique brain anatomy. While brain imaging could be used to identify individuals, it remains much more expensive than fingerprinting for now. Read to found out more about this study from the University of Zurich.

Psychedelics set off a flurry of brain activity that may permanently alter it

The brain seems to experience a sharp increase in communication between areas that generally don't interact. New research suggests a thin, sheet-like gray matter structure tucked deep within the brain, between the insular cortex and striatum, may be the key to this change. The area is centrally located and home to many of the receptors that psychedelics target, potentially rewiring the brain and rewriting thought patterns.

Why do dreamers twitch?

This thought-provoking piece highlights newer research suggesting sleep twitches may not be random dream leftovers, but instead a crucial way our brains map and understand our bodies. From sleeping rat pups to dreaming octopi, this biological mapping system appears universal across animal species.

Humans likely cannot tickle themselves because there's no element of surprise

Unraveling the neural mechanisms of tickling—formally called gargalesis—is an area of active research, but a leading theory about why we can't tickle ourselves is that the brain's somatosensory cortex processes self-touch differently than it does external touch. The cerebellum already anticipated what was going to happen when you move your hand for self-touch, limiting the effectiveness of a self-tickle.

Misfired motor signals may explain why many people with schizophrenia hear voices

Up to 80% of schizophrenia patients may have auditory hallucinations. Recent research concluded that this symptom may be from misfired motor signals that feed into each other, essentially failing to suppress certain sensory neural activities and that resulting overexcitment fuels hallucinations. The finding suggests that, one day, magnetic pulses might be used to stimulate specific nerves to better regulate the errant signals and reduce or stop hallucinations. (Some users may encounter a paywall.)

Fear has a specific 'smell'—at least to machines

This excerpt from a Mythbusters episode takes on the smell-of-fear question, comparing the sweat composition of individuals exposed to snakes, rats, and scorpions with that of people exercising. Molecularly, the sweats are different to a gas chromatography machine, but to most noses would be indistinguishable.

If hearing is damaged, the brain may amplify remaining sounds, perhaps causing tinnitus.

When common sounds become disturbing

Misophonia causes certain sounds to feel violating, triggering a "very visceral kind of experience" filled with extremely unpleasant emotions, including annoyance, anger, and disgust. A 2017 study found that people with misophonia have elevated activity in the brain's anterior insula—a region associated with interoception, emotional processing, and behavioral responses—when exposed to trigger sounds. Ongoing research suggests trigger sound context affects the severity and manifestation of the condition.

Researchers say that the horror genre offers opportunities to safely experiment with fear.

How brain cells carry information

At any moment, there is an electrical storm coursing through your body. Discover how chemical reactions create an electric current that drives our responses to everything from hot pans to a mother’s caress.

Some people may be genetically predisposed to loving roller coasters

Recent studies indicate that individuals with higher levels of dopamine may be more prone to thrill-seeking behaviours like riding roller coasters or even doing drugs or shoplifting.

Grief rewires the human brain

The human brain handles stress and emotional traumas similarly. In response to the emotional stress of a situation like the death of a loved one, divorce, or abuse, the brain may strengthen or weaken connections between nerves to form new neural connections. Over time, chronic stress can diminish brainpower, reducing overall nerve growth and memory to shift resources to enable elevated fear responses and enable humans to survive.

Scent is a stronger memory trigger than sight

Smell is imbued with more emotion than visual memories, and research indicates that smell triggers a significantly greater effect on amygdala activation. Scientists believe these powerful responses occur partly because smell signals bypass the thalamus and go directly to the amygdala and hippocampus, brain areas involved in emotion and memory.

Why are humans hooked on horror?

A haunted horror attraction in Denmark is regularly stalked by researchers of the world's only laboratory dedicated to understanding fear's good side. Fear is one of many human emotions that correspond to a physiological response. As fear rises, so do adrenaline, cortisol, and heart and breath rates. As it ebbs, the body is flooded with dopamine, a hormone and neurotransmitter associated with desire, learning, and motivation.

Visualizing a synaesthetic soundscape

Artist Michal Levy has chromesthesia, a subtype of synesthesia in which sounds and music trigger involuntary associations with and sensations of color. This condition gives Levy a unique artistic perspective and ability to interact with and interpret music. In this short animation, Levy tries to capture her audiovisual experience of 'Giant Steps," considered a landmark composition in jazz history by musician John Coltrane.

Accounts of near-death experiences share similarities with hallucinogens, with reports of mystical-like states of consciousness across both contexts.

Skull bone marrow may be playing a key role in chronic pain.