The Science of Goosebumps


This is the most random thing ever but here goes:

This topic astonishes me. Did you ever read something or listen to a certain part of a song that gave you goosebumps? Tonight, I was reading one of my earlier writings and got the chills. The very next line of the writing stated “I keep getting goosebumps whenever I read the previous paragraph.” I didn’t even see that line yet, so it’s not like it was some preconceived notion. Anyway, for you science geeks, have some more info.

This paragraph was originally written about 6 or 7 months ago. As I reread the exact same paragraph tonight, I still got goosebumps. The fact that it still happened now when I forgot the writing even existed amazed me. How can some words on a page when read many months apart cause the same physiological reaction. Simply amazing how the brain works.

This happens a lot with music too. James Gedge once explained this in high school. There was a study of a song that used to give this one man goosebumps. The man then had a stroke, and the song did not affect him in the same way. He wasn’t able “feel” the song anymore. Pretty scary.

Fucking hypothalmus, messing with me… Actually, that’s kind of an important part of the brain. So nevermind.