About a decade ago, scientists described a small group of people who get no pleasure from listening to music, even though their hearing is normal and they can enjoy other rewarding experiences. The phenomenon is known as specific musical anhedonia. Researchers say it happens when the brain areas that process sound do not communicate effectively with the networks that generate feelings of reward.
In a paper published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, the team that first outlined the condition explains what is happening in the brain—and why studying it may help scientists better understand how pleasure works more broadly.
According to neuroscientist Josep Marco-Pallarés of the University of Barcelona, similar brain mechanisms could help explain why people respond differently to other rewarding stimuli as well. He notes that mapping these circuits could support research into reward-related conditions, including anhedonia, addiction, and eating disorders.
Measuring How Rewarding Music Is
To identify musical anhedonia reliably, researchers developed a standardized tool: the Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire (BMRQ). It measures how rewarding a person finds music across five areas: emotional response, mood regulation, social connection, physical reactions such as dancing or movement, and the motivation to seek out music or collect new listening experiences.
People with specific musical anhedonia typically score low across all five categories, suggesting the issue is not a matter of taste, genre preference, or lack of exposure.
Brain Imaging Points to a Neural Disconnect
Both behavioral studies and brain imaging support the idea that the condition is caused by weak communication between brain networks. People with musical anhedonia can recognize melodies and process musical structure normally, indicating their auditory system works as expected. The difference is that music does not trigger pleasure.
Functional MRI scans show that, during music listening, people with the condition display reduced activation in the brain’s reward circuitry—the system involved in processing rewards such as food, sex, and art. Yet the same individuals respond normally to other rewarding events, such as winning money. This suggests the reward system itself is intact, but it is not effectively linked to music-related processing.
Marco-Pallarés explains that the lack of pleasure is best understood as a connectivity problem between the auditory network and the reward circuit, rather than a general failure of the reward system.
Why Connectivity Matters for Pleasure
Neuroscientist Ernest Mas-Herrero, also at the University of Barcelona, emphasizes that pleasure depends not only on whether reward circuits activate, but also on how those circuits interact with other brain regions involved in processing a specific kind of reward. If the reward circuit is broadly underactive, people tend to enjoy fewer things overall. In musical anhedonia, the problem appears to be more selective: the interaction between reward and auditory systems is weaker.
Genetics, Environment, and Individual Differences
Researchers still cannot fully explain why some people develop musical anhedonia, but both genetics and life experience seem to play a role. A twin study suggests that genetic factors could explain up to 54% of the differences in how much people enjoy music.
More generally, the researchers note that sensitivity to rewards varies widely even among people without the condition. Yet much research has treated pleasure as something that is either present or absent, rather than existing along a spectrum. Increasing evidence suggests that view is too simplistic.
Beyond Music: A Window Into Other “Specific Anhedonias”
The team argues that the same approach could be used to investigate other reward types, potentially identifying additional “specific anhedonias.” One possibility is a form of food-related anhedonia, where people may have reduced connectivity between brain regions involved in food processing and the reward system.
Researchers are now collaborating with geneticists to search for genes that may contribute to musical anhedonia. They also plan to study whether the condition remains stable over time or can change across a person’s life—and whether, in the future, it might be possible to reverse it.
The research was supported by funding from multiple organizations, including European and Spanish institutions, the Government of Catalonia, Canadian research agencies, and the Fondation pour l’Audition in Paris.
