Neuroscientist reveals fascinating insight into why sad songs bring comfort and joy to many

Most of us have encountered music that stirs deep emotions. It could be because these songs mirror our life's struggles or evoke buried feelings. However, sad songs hold a unique place in our hearts for a special reason—they often provide solace and even help people find love and comfort. A neuroscientist, Dr. Nas, who goes by @drnasneuro on Instagram, shared a simple scientific explanation for this on his social media.

Nas reacted to a video by TikTok creator Cian Stanley (@hulkamania_stanley2) whose expressions turned gloomy as soon as he began listening to "Cry," a 2019 track by American pop group, "Cigarettes After Sex." Nas then proceeded to explain the phenomenon, detailing why it has such a profound effect on us. "You like the occasional sad songs because your brain can respond to turn the sadness of the music into comfort," Nas reveals in his video. "Instead of genuine sorrow, sad music can create a sort of safe sadness by activating both parts of your brain which process deep emotion and reward pathways." He further displayed images of the brain and explained that the orbitofrontal cortex, which is involved in experiencing pleasure, is stimulated when we listen to these sad songs.

Since our brain is quite adept, it can identify the sad elements in songs and distinguish them from real-life sorrows. This ability allows the brain to let the "reward centers" and "emotional processing" coexist. "So you experience sad music as something moving and beautiful rather than distressing," Nas continued. "We often say that we feel emotions from our favorite sad songs deeply in our bodies. This is not a surprise since music activates the insula, a part of your brain that unifies who you feel inside to the emotional cues of the music." He added that if a person is already feeling down, sad songs can trigger the release of comfort hormones like prolactin.

"Prolactin is the same hormone that gets released during grief. Thus, sad music can help us process and release emotions in a safe and non-threatening way to restore emotional balance. Interestingly, those with light levels of empathy or emotional imagination, respond strongly to the music," Nas further explained. People with high levels of empathy can engage deeply with the music and even have flashbacks of their past experiences. "What is your go-to sad song or artist?" Nas concluded by writing in the caption of his video. "I’d love to know. For me, it has to be French classics. I don’t know if you know but my childhood was in France so old French music really gets me."

The comment section stepped in to agree that a song is not just a song but an emotion for them on many levels. @karenchoi.co shared, "Sad music is so beautiful to me. Especially the second movements of concertos. Like: Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major, II. Adagio, Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 II, Adagio and Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 II. Romance." @celestpereirapt thanked, "Honestly you always blow my mind. Thank you for your incredible content." @the_basstache wondered, "What about people who listen to metalcore or heavy music and they feel like it calms them down? Is it similar?"

You can follow Dr. Nas (@drnasneuro) on Instagram for more videos on neuroscience.