Frisson

Frisson (UK: /ˈfriːsɒn/ FREE-son, US: /friːˈsoʊn/ free-SOHN[1][2] French: [fʁisɔ̃]; French for "shiver"), also known as aesthetic chills or psychogenic shivers, is a psychophysiological response to rewarding stimuli (including music, films, stories, people, photos, and rituals[3]) that often induces a pleasurable or otherwise positively-valenced affective state and transient paresthesia (skin tingling or chills), sometimes along with piloerection (goose bumps) and mydriasis (pupil dilation).

[9][10] While frisson is usually known for being evoked by experiences with music, the phenomenon can additionally be triggered with poetry,[11] videos,[12] beauty in nature or art,[13] eloquent speeches,[14] and the practice of science (mainly physics and mathematics[15]).

Rhythmic, dynamic, harmonic, and/or melodic violations of a person's explicit or implicit expectations are associated with musical frisson as a prerequisite.

Loud, very high or low frequency, quickly varying sounds, or unexpected harmonies, moments of modulations, and appoggiaturas in a melody's succession have been shown to arouse the autonomic nervous system (ANS).

[19] Frisson can be induced by spectating a dance performance, which involves both observing the dancers and hearing the music, corresponding to two sense modalities: vision and audition, respectively.

Jeanette Bicknell, writing for the “Journal of Consciousness Studies,” wrote, “Different musical cultures are based upon different patterns of tonal and rhythmic organization.

[6] Frisson is also associated with piloerection, enlarged pupil diameter, and physiological arousal, all of which are mediated by activation of the sympathetic nervous system.