HIGHLIGHTS: The reason we still love the music we listened to as teenagers is because of something called neural nostalgia. The music binds to our brains more than anything we’re ever going to hear as adults.
FULL STORY: So you say you’re 54 years old, and you still listen to the music you loved when you were 13? Don’t worry, that’s not a sign of immaturity. You’re perfectly normal.
A therapist named Nikki Roy says, quote, “There is a thing called neural nostalgia where researchers are actually finding that the music we listen to as teenagers binds to our brains differently than anything we’re ever going to hear as adults.”
That actually makes that music a great coping mechanism, because it, quote, “helps us get out of our heads and helps us connect to ourselves. It makes us feel alive again.”
Author Daniel Levitin adds that the music we listen to at that age becomes attached to our sense of identity.
Quote, “We are discovering music on our own for the first time when we’re young, often through our friends. We listen to the music they listen to as a badge, as a way of belonging to a certain social group.”
Comments