Get A Clue: Is It Endorphins or a Brain Orgasm?

Pinky and the Brain. Pinky and the Brain. One is a genius. The other one's insane.

Which one are you today?

I think I've always been a healthy mixture of both. Lately, however, I've questioned my own happiness. The quarantine has had different effects on all of us and certainly has had varying effects on our brains.

Music, in particular, can influence a lot of that brain activity which alludes to our mysterious moods.

Being the nerd that I am I decided to tap into that.

House music for me has always been such an antidote. When I was little, my mom played a lot of house music and my first exposure to the genre was with a 90s German group La Bouche. They gave us hits like "Be My Lover" and "Sweet Dreams" which resonate til this day. I'm pretty sure you still hear them during spin class or when you go out with the girls to that one funky sushi bar downtown...

I was tiny, but my mom recalls my entire face lighting up with joy which then proceeded me to stand up in the crib and shake what my momma gave me (and I'm not just talkin' about the rattles).

What we both experienced was that particular genre's impact on my brain activity. While many people respond differently to different genres, there are studies conducted by two UCF professors — neuroscientist Kiminobu Sugaya and world-renowned violinist Ayako Yonetani suggesting that “If you play someone’s favorite music, different parts of the brain light up,” (...) “That means memories associated with music are emotional memories, which never fade out — even in Alzheimer’s patients.”

I wanted to focus on two brain components.

The Cerebellum:

Here's why I think this is cool. The cerebellum, mainly responsible for our motor skills such as balance and coordination also stores physical memory.

All the pre-med students are rolling their eyes at me, but hear me out.

I had no idea that this is, proverbially, our muscle memory storage bank. Our brains possess more neurons than they actually need and overtime we do a "sweep" of the neurons we deem no longer necessary, but if we are exposed to something at a younger age, it's pretty much guaranteed that we're going to want to nurture that neuron. What I mean by that is, even if we were to forget everything else on Earth, we'll cling to that one special neuron that evokes a memory, one which we can act on, such as playing the piano. We'll never lose it.

For me, house music is associated with sunrise and sunsets...I have vivid memories of sunlight creeping in through the blinds casting a fiery cast on the wall because these are the times of the day the stereo was blasting this type of music. I remember how I felt: happy, safe, complete, whole. My heart felt full.

As an adult, when I listen to Madeon, Arty, Habstrakt and so many more artists/sub-genres of house, I am transported from whatever state of mind I'm currently in to that exact feeling I had when I was a little girl in Poland.

To recreate that feeling in its purest form, anytime the sun creeps in through the windows in the mornings, I queue up some of my favorite house sets and blast them throughout the apartment...call it nostalgia.

Which brings me to the secondary part of the brain.

The Nucleus Accumbens:

The Nucleus Accumbens is scientific proof that music can be a drug and for most of us it definitely is. During quarantine, artists are focusing on creating even more songs for us. They're hosting live sets, putting out shows from the comfort of their homes and releasing new content on streaming platforms fueling our addiction even more...at no extra cost.

The reason why I wanted to focus on this specific part of the brain is because of my current state of mind: ecstatic. I've been feeding my brain with new music and house sets all day every day this week.

I kept telling friends who I have been checking up on to tell them how much endorphin release I am currently feeling.

Swear to God, they thought I was on actual ecstasy...but no. Turns out, my brain is actually high off of the music I've been listening to.

Music can do a lot of amazing things for you and your brain: soothe your blues, boost your immune system, make you a stronger communicator, repair brain damage and so much more.

This is the music set that resuscitated my heart, is currently the beat of my heart and echoes in my brain all day. It is the set that inspired this neurological piece. It is Arty performing at the Nocturnal Wonderland Virtual Rave-A-Thon and I'd be lying if I didn't agree with the host's sentiment: "Man, I feel close to people."

Next time you're experiencing this... you may wonder if it's endorphins or a brain orgasm...

It's definitely both. Keep raging. Keep stimulating your brain. Keep fueling the existential high.