Don't like music? Maybe you suffer from Musical Anhedonia!

Does everyone like music? False! There are people for whom music seems to be simply irrelevant. Maybe you know someone like that. I must say that I have always felt sorry for these types of people and have always imagined them as zombies moving through life incapable of feeling empathy or emotions, and definitely missing one of the things worth living for. I always wondered what could be wrong with them.

Now I know that roughly five percent of the people have an apathy toward music which is called specific musical anhedonia. But I still feel sorry for them, this time after understanding that it is a disorder. Anyways, I said specific and I said musical because we have to distinguish this condition from general anhedonia, which by definition is the inability to feel pleasure in normally pleasurable activities and it is usually connected obviously with depression. 

However, if you don't like music it does not mean you have to suffer from depression. In fact you probably have normal responses to other sources of pleasure like food, sex or other artistic expressions. Nevertheless, it is also interesting to know that recent advances in brain imaging have shown that certain brain networks are disrupted in individuals with musical anhedonia which are also active during social communications. Additionally, there is the idea that the evolutionary function of music comes from the role that music can play in forming social bonds, which comes from the fact that music (both making and listening) is inherently social. 

But I guess that if you're reading this, you're safe of suffering social stigma. I honestly do not think you have reached this last line of a little-known blog, without you liking music at least a little!

Cover photograph by Matias Altbach