{"id":11157,"date":"2026-08-10T07:02:50","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T07:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/?p=11157"},"modified":"2026-08-10T07:02:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T07:02:53","slug":"therapist-explains-surprisingly-scientific-reason-we-never-stop-loving-the-songs-from-our-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/?p=11157","title":{"rendered":"Therapist explains surprisingly scientific reason we never stop loving the songs from our youth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s not just nostalgia\u2014it\u2019s neuroscience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you never seem to get tired of blasting the same handful of early&nbsp;2000s&nbsp;songs\u2014maybe the emo tones of My Chemical Romance or something a little more upbeat and&nbsp;\u201990s&nbsp;like *NSYNC\u2014it\u2019s not just you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s no longer a mystery why so many of us seem to be \u201cstuck\u201d on the music we listened to as teens. Our musical tastes may evolve over time, and we always have room for new favorites (and a seemingly endless capacity in our brains for catchy lyrics), but there\u2019s something about the songs of our youth that just&nbsp;hits different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What\u2019s behind the phenomenon<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A therapist is going viral for explaining this phenomenon perfectly. It\u2019s not just nostalgia, she says. It\u2019s neuroscience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.upworthy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/vitaly-gariev-lH3KuPR41TI-unsplash.jpg?w=1024\" alt=\"music, nostalgia, youth, culture, science, brain science, human behavior, neuroscience, psychology, throwback, millennials, 2000s\" class=\"wp-image-249968\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nikki Roy is a therapist from Canada who specializes in helping her clients with \u201cself esteem, confidence, identity, emotion work (lots of anger), living authentically, creating a life of alignment, and breaking free from the oppressive systems the world operates on,\u201d according to an interview with&nbsp;CanvasRebel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She uses her vast social media following to break down big, complex topics in bite-sized ways that can reach and help a lot of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Recently, she tackled a concept she calls \u201cneural nostalgia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis is actually really well-researched,\u201d she says in a recent&nbsp;Instagram Reel. \u201cThe research found that the music you listen to as an adolescent or teenager actually imprinted on your brain and nervous system differently than music you\u2019ll ever listen to at any other time in your life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She goes on to explain that when you\u2019re a teenager, the pathways in your brain are still being built. The blueprint is still being developed, and it can be influenced by the music you listen to regularly. When you\u2019re an adult and hear the music that, quite literally, \u201cbuilt you,\u201d a lot of things come rushing to the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDopamine, seratonin, all those things start rushing back,\u201d Roy says. \u201cYou literally feel it in your gut. That specific music does something to you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to\u00a0Marble Wellness, \u201cWhen we listen to music from our youth, several brain regions become active.\u201d These include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The hippocampus, where memories are formed and retrieved<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The amygdala, which regulates emotions<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The prefrontal cortex, which manages complex cognitive behaviors<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Reward centers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s no wonder that our entire brain and mood can light up just a few notes into one of our favorite throwback songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u201cMusic is my safe space\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Roy says she likes to use neural nostalgia as a coping skill in her own life. She uses throwback tunes to boost her mood or process difficult emotions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMy car and music is my safe space,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd the music that got you through an especially hard time during that age, is probably always going to hit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fellow Millennials are feeling seen in the comments:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI have been listening to all the millennial jams lately and it has made my life so much lighter!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen \u2018it just hits different\u2019 is backed by science\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen I was a kid I used to wonder why old people prefer to listen to their \u2018old\u2019 music when there\u2019s so many good new music to listen to, now as and adult I fully get it\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cyessss, i\u2019ve been catching the sunset by the beach every evening in my \u201895 jeep with the top down blaring 90s R&amp;B &amp; 80s rock. i feel so whole. everything is like a nostalgic hug\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cplay your grandparents tunes from their teenage years too. they\u2019ll light up\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u201cStill knew every word\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some folks were fascinated by the fact that they could remember the lyrics of songs they hadn\u2019t heard in 20 or 30 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI turned 38 yesterday and listened to the Space Jam soundtrack while I ran errands,\u201d one commenter noticed. \u201cStill knew every word but couldn\u2019t remember my shopping list I wrote 30 mins before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Song lyrics stick in our brains and are notoriously easy to remember. Musical melodies act as a \u201cscaffolding\u201d that helps us fill in the blanks, and the way music triggers emotions makes the words more memorable than other pieces of information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those songs that imprinted on our brains while they were still developing? Their lyrics are so deeply embedded that they may never leave us, which is pretty incredible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In fact, this phenomenon may\u00a0one day be useful\u00a0for treating Alzheimer\u2019s disease, dementia, and other memory diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More generally, neural nostalgia has a ton of benefits, according to Marble Wellness. Listening to the songs you loved as a teen can boost your mood, reduce stress, and even lessen feelings of loneliness. Even more powerfully, it can connect you to a sense of your authentic self\u2014to who you were before the world shaped you, and to all the versions of yourself that came before and after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s heavy and complicated, but you know it when you feel it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s not just nostalgia\u2014it\u2019s neuroscience. If you never seem to get tired of blasting the same handful of early&nbsp;2000s&nbsp;songs\u2014maybe the emo tones of My Chemical<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/768452829_1676586990079212_3326192235892270642_n.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11157"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11159,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11157\/revisions\/11159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}