Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Reviews Soundings

Tell Tchaikovsky the news

BMJ 2006; 333 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.333.7562.309-a (Published 03 August 2006) Cite this as: BMJ 2006;333:309

Rapid Response:

Tingle Quotients perhaps differ as do drug-substance responses

Responses to pharmaceuticals, foods, drugs--useful and those
abused--are gender, age, ethnicity dependent. Moods, behaviour
are dependent upon serotonin; reward related activities are
related to dopamine and other factors.

The tingle quotients following listening to music most certainly
differ
in individuals--thought by some to be related to endorphin release
as in some other pleasurable and pleasure seeking-gratification
activities. Beautiful vistas-views, sculptures/pictures/paintings/listening to soothing voices in
contrast to shrieks and quarrels are bound to be different.

It has been thought that addiction to watching violence,
pornographic images may well be related to the adrenaline-endorphin release--the brain morphine like compounds.

Away from this complex network circuitry of neurotransmitter
effects, some people listen most of the time to music that pleases
them--that is why they play music such as pop music, western or
oriental. Wailing may be because of the differences in the effects
of quarter tones versus semi tones, but it sounds ghastly to me and
others. Many a time I have wished that in our hospital canteen
when they started playing music ghastly to my ears, that I had the
antisilence gun.

Some classical music--instrumental and opera--puts many people off
and they don't like it.

The solution for publicly piped or forced music is not to inflict
'what
is good for you' type of music on the public or the wards or
telephone 'hold' services either..

Competing interests:
None declared

Competing interests: No competing interests

09 August 2006
jitendra n Mehrishi
Medical Research Scientist
Cambridge CB4 9LZ