Question: Why do i get chills when i listen to my favorite song?

SarahJayne Boulton answered on 28 Jun 2012:

I almost don’t want to answer this question, it’s good to be blissed out and unaware sometimes!!

Those sublime chills you’re describing are part of a sensory experience triggered by the pilomotor reflex, basically goose bumps.

Now those chills, those awesome little chills, feel like they come on differently to goose bumps, sometimes they can start right on your scalp and travel all the way down your back, where as sometimes there’s no tingle with goose bumps or sometimes they start on your arms / legs / where ever.

The muscially induced shivers are triggered as part of our ancestral fight ot flight response. The memory of enjoyment of an experience (knowing you LOVE this song) triggers you a little shot of adrenaline and a little shot of dopamine, not enough to cause massive physiological changes or readiness, (like if you were terrified and your heart pounds and you sweat) but just enough for your symathetic nervous system to kick in and spike all the tiny, almost invisible hairs down your neck and spine, as well as the ones one your arms and legs sometimes, and if it’s stron enough, you’ll get some goosebumps too.

The chills are reliant on the subtlety of the nervous systems response; it’s a very fine balance, a ‘hair trigger’ if you’ll pardon the pun.