Neat Scientific American article on a study that investigated the networks active during teenagers' perception of popular music.

They took a group of teens and presented them with a number of samples of music from Myspace which they rated based on personal preference. They were then presented with the same samples again, this time also being exposed to the total number of listens the song had generated on Myspace.

The scans showed that the initial evaluation of the songs activated "the head of the caudate nucleus", whereas the teens who changed their mind after seeing that a song was popular tended to activate the "bilateral insula, the anterior cingulate cortex and the supplementary motor cortex and frontal poles" which are associated with anxiety and pain.

Tags: fmri, music, listening, choice, anxiety, social anxiety, social acceptance, groups, myspace, popular,

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