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Frisson

Frisson (French for 'shiver'), also known as aesthetic chills, musical chills, and colloquially as a skin orgasm, is an involuntary psychophysiological response to rewarding auditory and/or visual stimuli that induces a pleasurable or otherwise positively-valenced affective state and transient paresthesia (skin tingling or chills), piloerection (goose bumps), and mydriasis (pupil dilation).

The psychological component (i.e., the pleasurable feeling) and physiological components (i.e., parasthesia, piloerection, and pupil dilation) of the response are mediated by the reward systemand sympathetic nervous system, respectively. The stimuli that produce this response are unique to each individual.

Frisson is of short duration, usually lasting one to 10 seconds.Typical stimuli include loud passages of music and passages—such as appoggiaturas and sudden modulation—that violate some level of musical expectation. It has been shown that during frisson, the skin of the lower back flexes, and shivers rise upward and inward from the shoulders, up the neck, and may extend to the cheeks and scalp. The face may become flush and hair follicles experience piloerection. This frequently occurs in a series of 'waves' moving up the back in rapid succession.

Piloerection (goose bumps), a physical component of frisson

It has been shown that some experiencing musical frisson report reduced excitement when under administration of naloxone (an opioid receptor antagonist), suggesting musical frisson gives rise to endogenous opioid peptides similar to other pleasurable experiences. Frisson may be enhanced by the amplitude of the music and the temperature of the environment. Cool listening rooms and movie theaters may enhance the experience.

Causes

Violations of musical expectancy

Rhythmic, harmonic, and/or melodic violations of a person’s explicit or implicit expectations are associated with musical frisson as a prerequisite. Loud, very high or low frequency, or quickly varying sounds (unexpected harmonies, moments of modulations, melodic appoggiaturas) has been shown to arouse the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Activation of the ANS has a consistent strong correlation with frisson, as one study showed that an opioid antagonist could block frisson from music.

Emotional Contagion

Another explanation for the cause of frisson is emotional contagion, which proposes that perceived emotional intensity prompts frisson in a similar way to how a perceived sad ballad can allow a listener to feel sad themselves as an empathetic response.

Neural Correlates

Further information: Reward system and Sympathetic nervous system

Experimental studies have also shown that tingling during frisson is accompanied by increased electrodermal activity (skin conductance) – which is mediated via the activation of the sympathetic nervous system – and that the intensity of tingling is positively correlated with the magnitude of sympathetic activation. Frisson is also associated with piloerection, enlarged pupil diameter, and physiological arousal, all of which are mediated by activation of the sympathetic nervous system.

Neuroimaging studies have found that the intensity of tingling is positively correlated with the magnitude of brain activity in specific regions of the reward system, including the nucleus accumbens, orbitofrontal cortex, and insular cortex. All three of these brain structures are known to contain a hedonic hotspot, a region of the brain that is responsible for producing pleasure cognition. Since music-induced euphoria can occur without the sensation of tingling or piloerection, the authors of one review hypothesized that the emotional response to music during a frisson evokes a sympathetic response that is experienced as a tingling sensation.

Dopamine is released in the caudate and nucleus accumbens before and immediately after peak musical experience. Frisson from listening to music has also been shown to cause cerebral blood flow changes across the brain (bilateral amygdala, left hippocampus, left ventral striatum, midbrain, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex). This activity mirrors the 'craving' effect that stimuli such as food, sex, and drugs of abuse can cause and may explain why some chil-indicuing songs are described as addictive.