I’m a neuroscientist. Here’s why our brains need pop concerts | Bala Subramaniam

‘Bizarrely, it was Nick Jonas (now an unlikely permanent fixture on my playlists) who reminded me of an obscure phrase coined by a 19th-century sociologist.’ Photograph: David Becker/WireImage View image in fullscreen ‘Bizarrely, it was Nick Jonas (now an unlikely permanent fixture on my playlists) who reminded me of an obscure phrase coined by a 19th-century sociologist.’ Photograph: David Becker/WireImage I’m a neuroscientist. Here’s why our brains need pop concerts Bala Subramaniam Attending a Nick Jonas show with my kids was an invitation to ‘collective effervescence’. We need these shared experiences now more than ever Three years ago, I agreed to accompany my children to a Nick Jonas concert. The appeal of the Jonas Brothers, and in this case only one of them, was unfamiliar territory. The concert happened to land on a particularly inconvenient day. As I sprinted out of the hospital, my mind was filled with the “what if’s” and “should haves” about our work that day. After lengthy negotiations with my daughter at the merchandise stand, we settled in as Nick Jonas began. I found myself surrounded , swaying to the same rhythm, and participating in the same moment. At first I felt like an impostor, as if I was attending a party I hadn’t been invited to. However, as the evening progressed, my thoughts of “me” shrank as I was absorbed into the intoxicating collective of the crowd. I was a whinger, a cynic, a misanthrope. Then I saw Harry Styles live – and I will never be the same again Bizarrely, it was Nick Jonas (now an unlikely permanent fixture on my playlists) who reminded me of an obscure phrase coined by a 19th-century sociologist – Émile Durkheim’s “collective effervescence”. He was describing how individuals who are normally preoccupied with their personal concerns get swept up into a kind of electric, communal intensity. For “collective effervescence” to occur organically, bodies need to be present, in the same space, dancing to the same rhythm. The function, according to Durkheim, is to restore the social bonds and shared beliefs that are eroded . Such a state is a rare universal in human culture. Cave drawings displaying communal dancing, often around a fire, are found across centuries and continents. As a neuroscientist and practiced meditator, I’m familiar with the literature on ego dissolution. My own research on the Shambavi Mahamudra Kriya, an ancient yogic meditation practice, found that it reduces activity in the “default mode network” (DMN), the circuit in the brain that is responsible for planning, daydreaming and self-talking.