Why does music move us? With Robert Zatorre, PhD

When you hear a tune you recognize, your brain does far more than process sound. It activates your motor system, retrieves autobiographical memories, and—if the music hits just right—releases dopamine in the same reward circuits that respond to food, sex, or winning money. Robert Zatorre, a pioneer in the neuroscience of music, has spent decades mapping how this abstract sequence of vibrations can produce such profound emotional and cognitive effects. In this conversation, he explains the mechanisms behind musical pleasure, why some people feel nothing from music at all, and what makes a particular moment in a song feel beautiful.

Music as a whole-brain phenomenon

Zatorre argues that music is not merely an auditory experience—it engages nearly every cognitive function. He illustrates this with a simple everyday scenario: you hear someone whistling a tune in a hallway. You recognize the melody even though you’ve never heard it whistled before. It reminds you of a beach trip last summer with a friend. You start tapping your foot. You feel a lift in your mood. In that brief moment, your brain has engaged auditory processing, memory retrieval, motor coordination, and emotional response. “This is why I like to say it engages the whole brain,” Zatorre says. “It is a very complex type of human activity that doesn’t stop just at the level of sound.”