How long-term addiction shifts music perception

Research led by Aarhus University in Denmark reports that individuals with substance use disorders experience a heightened urge to move in response to music with complex rhythms and harmonies.

Long-term use of cocaine and heroin disrupts dopamine signaling in the brain, depleting receptors and diminishing the effects of non-drug stimuli, such as music, to trigger pleasure.

Prior research has shown that music can activate dopaminergic pathways involved in reward, anticipation, and movement. Groove, the pleasurable urge to move to music, follows an inverted-U pattern in healthy listeners, peaking when rhythms fall into a sweet spot of moderate rhythmic complexity. Most people feel the strongest compulsion to move their bodies to the beat when those beats are neither too simple nor too unpredictable.

Scientists have previously studied how this “groove” response flattens in conditions like Parkinson’s disease, where dopamine pathways deteriorate and musical rhythm no longer triggers the normal peaked response.

Researchers were interested in the possibility that addiction, operating on similar brain pathways, might shift what kinds of rhythms feel rewarding, or what it takes to trigger the body’s instinctive groove impulse.

In the study, “Individuals with substance use disorders experience an increased urge to move to complex music,” published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers designed a controlled auditory experiment to examine how long-term cocaine and heroin use alters groove perception.

The cohort included 58 male participants divided into three groups: 19 individuals recovering from cocaine addiction, 16 recovering from heroin and cocaine addiction, and 23 nonusers without current or habitual use of cocaine or heroin. All drug-using participants lived in residential rehabilitation centers in Italy, where substance use was strictly prohibited during the study.

Participants listened to musical excerpts that varied in rhythmic and harmonic complexity, using stimuli previously developed in groove research. After each excerpt, they rated the strength of their urge to move.

Nonusers followed the typical inverted-U response, with peak groove at moderate rhythmic and harmonic complexity and lower ratings at high or low complexity.

The recovery group rated a significantly stronger groove in response to high rhythmic complexity than nonusers. They also reported weaker groove to low rhythmic complexity. Ratings for moderate rhythmic complexity did not significantly differ from the control group.

Participants in recovery experienced significantly stronger groove in response to high harmonic complexity than nonusers. Groove ratings for low and moderate harmonic complexity did not significantly differ from the control group.

Researchers interpret the altered groove responses in drug users as evidence that long-term substance use raises the threshold for non-drug stimuli to engage dopaminergic reward systems.

Complex rhythms and harmonies may provide the sensory intensity required to activate downregulated neural pathways, consistent with the elevated reward threshold hypothesis in addiction science.

Findings may also align with pre-existing sensation-seeking, a trait linked to both drug use and preferences for intense musical experiences.

Groove may offer a noninvasive tool to probe altered reward sensitivity and movement engagement in addiction and could support music-based interventions aimed at well-being and social connection in recovery settings.

© 2025 Science X Network

Research led by Aarhus University in Denmark reports that individuals with substance use disorders experience a heightened urge to move in response to music with complex rhythms and harmonies.

Long-term use of cocaine and heroin disrupts dopamine signaling in the brain, depleting receptors and diminishing the effects of non-drug stimuli, such as music, to trigger pleasure.

Prior research has shown that music can activate dopaminergic pathways involved in reward, anticipation, and movement. Groove, the pleasurable urge to move to music, follows an inverted-U pattern in healthy listeners, peaking when rhythms fall into a sweet spot of moderate rhythmic complexity. Most people feel the strongest compulsion to move their bodies to the beat when those beats are neither too simple nor too unpredictable.

Scientists have previously studied how this “groove” response flattens in conditions like Parkinson’s disease, where dopamine pathways deteriorate and musical rhythm no longer triggers the normal peaked response.

Researchers were interested in the possibility that addiction, operating on similar brain pathways, might shift what kinds of rhythms feel rewarding, or what it takes to trigger the body’s instinctive groove impulse.

In the study, “Individuals with substance use disorders experience an increased urge to move to complex music,” published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers designed a controlled auditory experiment to examine how long-term cocaine and heroin use alters groove perception.

The cohort included 58 male participants divided into three groups: 19 individuals recovering from cocaine addiction, 16 recovering from heroin and cocaine addiction, and 23 nonusers without current or habitual use of cocaine or heroin. All drug-using participants lived in residential rehabilitation centers in Italy, where substance use was strictly prohibited during the study.

Participants listened to musical excerpts that varied in rhythmic and harmonic complexity, using stimuli previously developed in groove research. After each excerpt, they rated the strength of their urge to move.

Nonusers followed the typical inverted-U response, with peak groove at moderate rhythmic and harmonic complexity and lower ratings at high or low complexity.

The recovery group rated a significantly stronger groove in response to high rhythmic complexity than nonusers. They also reported weaker groove to low rhythmic complexity. Ratings for moderate rhythmic complexity did not significantly differ from the control group.

Participants in recovery experienced significantly stronger groove in response to high harmonic complexity than nonusers. Groove ratings for low and moderate harmonic complexity did not significantly differ from the control group.

Researchers interpret the altered groove responses in drug users as evidence that long-term substance use raises the threshold for non-drug stimuli to engage dopaminergic reward systems.

Complex rhythms and harmonies may provide the sensory intensity required to activate downregulated neural pathways, consistent with the elevated reward threshold hypothesis in addiction science.

Findings may also align with pre-existing sensation-seeking, a trait linked to both drug use and preferences for intense musical experiences.

Groove may offer a noninvasive tool to probe altered reward sensitivity and movement engagement in addiction and could support music-based interventions aimed at well-being and social connection in recovery settings.

© 2025 Science X Network