The different sensations we feel when listening to a piece of music are not only linked to our tastes, explains doctor Jimmy Mohamed on Europe 1.

These emotions respond to biochemical changes in our brain, inherited from childhood.

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"Music softens manners," says the adage.

Not all of the time, but it does influence our emotions to cause various sensations: joy, melancholy, but also better concentration or greater resistance to effort - it is moreover forbidden to 'listen to it during a marathon!

A "power" of sound which is not only psychological but very scientific, explains doctor Jimmy Mohamed, health consultant from Europe 1. 

>> Find Jimmy Mohamed's column every morning at 8:37 am on Europe 1 as well as in replay and podcast here

Goosebumps or a racing heart

When we listen to music intuitively, on a daily basis, biochemical changes take place in our brain, which can sometimes lead to strong or even involuntary emotions.

For example, you may have goosebumps, chills down your back or your heart racing.

This sensitivity is not innate: it would begin in childhood, thanks to situations that we have been able to experience in a pleasant way, such as the nursery rhymes that our parents sang to us, which cause us happiness.

Happiness that we will find while listening to certain pieces of music, once grown up. 

An "audio card" of emotions according to the songs

Can we then speak of a form of universality of emotions according to a song?

This is what researchers have sought to prove by having nearly 3,000 people of different origins listen to several pieces of music, to find out if a song provokes, whatever the nationality, always the same emotions.

And they have indeed succeeded in creating a form of "audio map" of emotions, with thousands of pieces that correspond to joy, sadness, desire, annoyance or even indifference.

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The cover of

Michael Jackson's

Smooth Criminal

by punk rock band Alien Ant Farm thus arouses a sense of excitement and energy, while a romantic series credits indulge in tenderness, if not love. 'excitation.

Without the study panel listening to it, we can also think of the famous opening credits of the Champions League, which arouses a multitude of emotions among football fans across Europe.