I know I can't be the only one who comes home after a long day and blasts the stereo to destress. I often associate music with different types of emotions (for example, I listen to Garbage when I am angry or Mariah Carey's "I Don't Wanna Cry" when I am sad). Do you ever wonder why you just want to get up and move when you listen to music? Don't woory, you aren't alone.

If you were to ask someone how they felt when they listen to a fast tempo music, they will likely say that it makes them feel happy, energized and makes them want to dance. Play something slow in a major key and they'd likely say that they feel relaxed; slow tempo music is good for meditation. Slow in a minor key tends to make people feel sad and will trigger them to recall memories. Distonant music in a fast tempo, they will ikely feel fear. To a certain degree,
dissonance is dependent on culture, but there is a theory that dissonance sounds abrasive to listeners of any culture. Studies have demonstrated that babies as young as four months old react negatively to dissonant music.

Listening to music activates brain cells that release endorphins which produce a feeling of happiness or peace. That's why music is used to treat ailments like asthma, hypertension, arthritis, etc. However, not every kind of music makes everyone happy. New research in music therapy suggests that some types of music induce a feeling of sadness in a mentally healthy person and of happiness in a depressed person.

It is a fact, as much as facts can exist, that the right kind music releases endorphins. This causes relief of pain, and if there is no pain, happiness, pleasure. It has also been shown that music can induce sleep by convincing the brain to release melatonin. This can be seen visibly in listeners to whom a relaxing piece of music is being played. For many people, music that has an intrinsic feeling of pleasure associated with it can cause a listener to become motivated to do something. These pieces have no other memories attached to them, but, interestingly, when they are played, the areas of the brain that are stimulated are those that are also stimulated by food, sex, and drugs. This could imply that there is a connection between these things and the way that music is processed by the brain.

What is it that makes music so intensely powerful? We may never really know. As much as we can quantify the responses the brain produces when we listen to music, we cannot yet explain why they happen.

Here is what Daniel Levitin has to say. He is the author of This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession.

Question: What are we learning about the link between music and emotion in the brain?

Levitin: Music activates the same parts of the brain and causes the same neurochemical cocktail as a lot of other pleasurable activities like orgasms or eating chocolate -- or if you're a gambler winning a bet or using drugs if you're a drug user. Serotonin and dopamine are both involved.

Question: Could music be an antidepressant?

Levitin: It is already -- most people in Western society use music to regulate moods, whether it's playing something peppy in the morning or something soothing at the end of a hard day, or something that will motivate them to exercise. Joni Mitchell told me that someone once said before there was Prozac, there was her.

I am off to brighten my day with some Beyonce.