Specific Musical Anhedonia: Why Some People Don't Enjoy Music

Author: Cell Press
Published: 2025/08/07
Publication Details: Peer-Reviewed, Research, Study, Analysis
Category Topic: Neurological Disorders - Academic Publications

Page Content: Synopsis - Introduction - Main - Insights, Updates

Synopsis: This research from a peer-reviewed scientific journal provides authoritative insights into a condition called specific musical anhedonia, where individuals derive no pleasure from music despite having normal hearing and the ability to enjoy other experiences. The study, published in the prestigious Cell Press journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences, reveals that this condition stems from a disconnection between the brain's auditory processing networks and reward circuits, rather than deficits in either system individually.

Using brain imaging and behavioral assessments including the Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire, researchers at the University of Barcelona demonstrated that people with this condition can perceive musical melodies normally but show reduced reward circuit activity specifically when listening to music, while maintaining typical responses to other pleasures like winning money or food. This research offers valuable understanding for individuals who may feel isolated or different due to their lack of musical enjoyment, providing scientific validation that their experience represents a legitimate neurological variation rather than a personal failing, which could be particularly meaningful for those seeking to understand their own unique sensory and emotional responses - Disabled World (DW).

Defining Musical Anhedonia

Musical Anhedonia: Musical anhedonia is a neurological condition where individuals experience a complete absence of pleasure or emotional response to music, despite having normal hearing abilities and the capacity to enjoy other rewarding experiences like food, social interactions, or visual art. First identified and scientifically documented around 2014, this condition affects roughly 3-5% of the population and occurs when the brain's auditory processing regions fail to properly connect with the reward and emotional centers, creating what researchers describe as a "neural disconnect." People with musical anhedonia can still perceive rhythm, melody, and harmony - they understand that music exists and can even recognize familiar songs - but they derive no joy, excitement, or emotional satisfaction from listening to it, often describing the experience as hearing organized noise rather than something pleasurable. The condition appears to be largely genetic, with studies suggesting hereditary factors account for up to 54% of an individual's musical reward sensitivity, and it represents a fascinating example of how neurological wiring differences can create vastly different human experiences of the same stimulus.

Introduction

Brain Study Reveals Why Some People Don't Enjoy Music

Ten years ago, researchers discovered a small group of people who derive no pleasure from music despite having normal hearing and the ability to enjoy other experiences or stimuli. The condition, "specific musical anhedonia," is caused by a disconnect between the brain's auditory and reward networks. In a paper publishing August 7 in the Cell Press journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences, the team that discovered specific musical anhedonia describes the brain mechanisms behind the condition and discusses how understanding it could reveal other differences in how people experience pleasure and joy.

"A similar mechanism could underlie individual differences in responses to other rewarding stimuli," says author and neuroscientist Josep Marco-Pallarés of the University of Barcelona. "Investigating these circuits could pave the way for new research on individual differences and reward-related disorders such as anhedonia, addiction, or eating disorders."

Main Content

To identify musical anhedonia, the team developed a tool called the Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire (BMRQ) that measures how rewarding a person finds music. The questionnaire examines five different ways in which music can be rewarding: by evoking emotion; by helping regulate mood; by fostering social connections; through dance or movement; and as something novel to seek, collect, or experience. People with musical anhedonia generally score low on all five aspects of the BMRQ.

Behavioral and brain imaging studies have both supported the idea that specific musical anhedonia is due to a disconnection between brain regions. People with the condition can perceive and process musical melodies, meaning that their auditory brain circuits are intact - they simply don't derive pleasure from doing so. Similarly, fMRI scans show that when listening to music, people with musical anhedonia have reduced activity in the reward circuit - the part of the brain that processes rewards including food, sex, and art - but a normal level of activity in response to other rewarding stimuli, such as winning money, indicating that their reward circuit is also intact.

"This lack of pleasure for music is explained by disconnectivity between the reward circuit and the auditory network - not by the functioning of their reward circuit, per se," says Marco-Pallarés. "If the reward circuit is not working well, you get less pleasure from all kinds of rewards," says author and neuroscientist Ernest Mas-Herrero of the University of Barcelona. "Here, what we point out is that it might be not only the engagement of this circuitry that is important but also how it interacts with other brain regions that are relevant for the processing of each reward type."

Why people develop the condition is still unclear, but studies have shown that genetics and environment could both play a role. A recently published study in twins shows that genetic effects could be responsible for up to 54% of how much an individual enjoys music.

Even among healthy people, there is a lot of variation in how responsive people are to rewards, but research into specific reward types is relatively rare given that most research into the reward circuit has assumed that reward responsiveness is an all-or-nothing phenomenon - which is not the case.

"We propose that using our methodology to study other reward types could yield the discovery of other specific anhedonias," says Marco-Pallarés. "It's possible, for instance, that people with specific food anhedonia may have some deficit in the connectivity between brain regions involved in food processing and the reward circuitry."

The team is currently collaborating with geneticists to identify specific genes that might be involved in specific musical anhedonia. They also plan to investigate whether the condition is a stable trait or something that changes throughout life - and whether musical anhedonia or other similar conditions can be reversed.

This research was supported by funding from the European Regional Development Fund, the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Government of Catalonia, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Fondation pour l'Audition, Paris.

Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Mas-Herrero et al., "Understanding individual differences to specific rewards through music"

Insights, Analysis, and Developments

Editorial Note: The discovery of specific musical anhedonia opens fascinating questions about the highly individualized nature of human pleasure and reward systems, suggesting that what brings joy to one person may be neurologically inaccessible to another through no fault of their own. As researchers continue investigating the genetic and environmental factors behind this condition, their findings could revolutionize our understanding of other specific pleasure deficits and lead to more personalized approaches to treating reward-related disorders, ultimately helping society appreciate the beautiful diversity in how different brains experience the world around them - Disabled World (DW).

Attribution/Source(s): This peer reviewed publication was selected for publishing by the editors of Disabled World (DW) due to its relevance to the disability community. Originally authored by Cell Press and published on 2025/08/07, this content may have been edited for style, clarity, or brevity.