Are Musical Chills Really Caused By Endogenous Opioids? Examining Goldstein's 1980 Results
I had the following article in the ICMPC 11 proceedings. ABSTRACTAn often cited conclusion that musical chills are mediated by endogenous opioids (endorphins) is based on an experiment that showed the opioid antagonist naloxone reduced the chills rate of music in some subjects. However, we find some experimental problems with its methods, results and conclusion. Dr. Goldstein's experiment with musical chills and naloxone used 10 subjects, all music chill responders, and found that 3 had significant chill reduction related to naloxone. He did not provide the result showing if the other 7 had any reduction at all, and the assumption would be that they had no reduction in chills.
