"Andy Lau has thawed 95%!" Why has "Gong Xi Fa Cai" become a popular song for the Chinese New Year?

Every time I hear the prelude of "Gong Xi Fa Cai", I feel like the Chinese New Year is coming soon. This year is no exception. At the end of December, netizens have begun to collectively joke that "Andy Lau has thawed 95%"......

Image source: A social platform

In addition to "Gong Xi Fa Cai", there is also the Christmas "nail house" Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You". The status of this song in the United States is similar to that of Andy Lau's "Gong Xi Fa Cai" in the New Year. This song will be played everywhere in the streets and alleys on Christmas Eve and Christmas.

In addition, there is the famous "Nero", who comes from Japan. His contrasting Christmas song became popular on the entire Internet. After being made into a spinning figurine, he became a regular feature of the two-dimensional Christmas every year.

The above three songs are also called "the three giants of thawing" by netizens. Image source: a social platform

So what is going on? In fact, the ability to remember the relationship between unrelated things is called "conditioned reflex".

What is a "conditioned reflex"?

"Conditioned reflexes" are acquired by people in their daily lives and are a kind of advanced neural activity. What we usually call "knee jerk reflexes", that is, tapping the ligament under the knee to lift the calf, or "hand retraction reflex", "eye blink reflex", etc., are actually "unconditioned reflexes", which are innate reflexes that people are born with, and do not require the participation of the cerebral cortex. They can be completed by the nerve centers below the cerebral cortex, such as the brainstem and spinal cord.

The difference between them is that "unconditioned reflexes" are innate neural connections between external stimuli and the body's response, which are also called "unconditioned stimuli" and "unconditioned responses." For example, food can trigger saliva secretion, so food is an "unconditioned stimulus" and saliva secretion is an "unconditioned response."

In order to establish a "conditioned reflex", it is necessary to experience repeated stimulation so that something that would not originally trigger a specific reaction, that is, a "neutral stimulus", can also trigger a reaction in the organism.

So how does the brain do this?

In fact, "conditioned reflex" is also based on "unconditioned reflex". Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, discovered and studied this process in detail: in his experiment, dogs were used as experimental subjects, "food" was used as "unconditioned stimulus", "inducing saliva secretion" was used as "unconditioned reflex", and "bell" was used as "neutral stimulus". He let the "neutral stimulus" (bell) and the "unconditioned stimulus" (food) appear at the same time, that is, every time before giving food to the dog, the bell rang first, and then the food was provided immediately. After repeating this experiment many times, he observed whether just ringing the bell without providing food would also cause the dog to secrete saliva.

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The result of the experiment is that the dog will naturally secrete saliva after hearing the bell. At this time, the bell is no longer just a "neutral stimulus", but a "conditioned stimulus", and the secretion of saliva is a "conditioned response".

"May you be happy and prosperous"

Why can it bring about the New Year atmosphere?

Going back to the example at the beginning, the song "Gong Xi Fa Cai" is also a "neutral stimulus" that would not originally cause a specific reaction. If you want it to cause a "conditioned reflex", it requires a learning process of repeated stimulation.

Think back, is it true that you always hear the song "Gong Xi Fa Cai" repeatedly when you go shopping in malls, supermarkets, or buy New Year's goods on the street during the Spring Festival? Whether it is the red lanterns and firecrackers of the Spring Festival, or the reunion of the family, they can actually become "unconditioned stimuli" because they naturally cause pleasant or excited emotional responses (that is, "unconditioned responses").

Therefore, after "Gong Xi Fa Cai" and "Chinese New Year" have appeared together for a long time, whenever people hear this song, they can immediately associate it with Chinese New Year. This song has become a "conditioned stimulus" and formed a "conditioned response."

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There are many other examples of using music as a stimulus to establish a "conditioned reflex". For example, in the movies A Clockwork Orange and Léon: The Professional, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is always used in the murder scenes, causing the audience to get goosebumps whenever they hear the Ninth Symphony.

"Little White Boat", which has become popular in recent years due to the TV series "The Bad Kids", was originally a simple nursery rhyme. When people did not establish a "conditioned reflex" between the song and the murder plot, the song was ordinary and innocent, but when a connection was established between the murder plot and the nursery rhyme, the innocent nursery rhyme could become a horror song.

Some music can bring a sense of horror. Scientists have found that anti-rhythmic nonlinear noise can make people or other mammals feel uneasy. In music, it can be specific to the interval from A to E flat, or from D flat to G. Repeated use of this dissonant rhythm can bring unhappiness. For example, in the Middle Ages, there was an interval in the tonality that even began to be called the "devil's interval", which refers to the interval of three notes, or the augmented fourth note.

Therefore, the reason why "Gong Xi Fa Cai" can bring the atmosphere of the Chinese New Year is not only the effect of "conditional reflex", but also the smoothness of the interval, scale, rhythm and melody of the music itself. For example, C to E (major third) or A to F (minor sixth). These intervals sound harmonious and pleasant, and are the key components of many melodies. Major scales such as C major (CDEFGAB) sound positive and bright overall, which helps to bring a sense of pleasure.

A 2014 study published in the journal Nature found a clear link between music and multiple areas of the brain.

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Music can affect our emotions. "Gong Xi Fa Cai" as a cheerful song can activate the "mesolimbic pathway" (also known as the reward pathway, which is the dopamine pathway in the brain). The activation level of the nucleus accumbens area in the mesolimbic pathway will also be higher, strengthening the connection with music processing brain areas such as the auditory cortex and ventromedial prefrontal cortex .

This area is an important reward system in our brain. As early as prehistoric humans successfully foraged for food, this system would activate and release neurotransmitters such as dopamine, allowing us to taste the "pleasure" of achieving a goal or winning. This is why when we hear "Unforgettable Tonight" at the party, we are no longer curious about why it is the same song every year.

So, what other songs can trigger your conditioned reflex? You can leave a message in the comment section~

References

[1]https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%A2%9D%E4%BB%B6%E5%8F%8D%E5%B0%84/107258

[2] Sun Yanan, Liu Yuan, Nan Yun. Research on the influence of music on emotions and its brain mechanism[J]. Progress in Natural Science, 2009, 19 01 47-52.

[3] Xiang Aizhai, Zhang Yunting, Zhang Quan, Li Wei. fMRI study on the activation of human brain emotion system by music stimulation[J]. Chinese Journal of Clinical Psychology, 2006, 02

107-110.

[4]www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10204547/

[5] https://www.cdstm.cn/gallery/kxfdj/202011/t20201105_1036811.html

Planning and production

Author: Wuqiong Science Creator

Reviewer: Zhao Wei, Chief Physician, Department of Neurology, Tianjin University TEDA Hospital

Planning丨Yinuo

Editor: Yinuo

Proofread by Xu Lai and Lin Lin

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