Neuroscience and Nostalgia
by Patrick | Published in Featured, How To | 29 Comments
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Ahh the good old days. The music, the sights, the sounds of a place that we can never journey back to. But why do these memories of times past feel so nostalgic? What makes these memories so different from remembering what I had for breakfast last Tuesday?
Put on the rose colored glasses and get ready to take a trip through our brain, as we examine the science of nostalgia.
What is nostalgia?
The scientific literature on nostalgia is quite thin, but there are a few fascinating studies that have attempted to pin down the essence of nostalgia, and the reasons that we feel that warm glow when recalling the past.
It’s not surprising to say nostalgia is all about memories. These recollections of our past are usually important events, people we care about, and places we’ve spent time at. What is perhaps a little surprising is that nostalgia is almost always associated with positive emotions – even when the trigger for recalling a nostalgic memory is something negative. In the study I’ve linked to the negative memory people reported was usually a bad situation that was eventually overcome – a bad memory tempered with a good outcome and association.
Smell and touch are also strong evokers of nostalgia and memories in general due to the processing of these stimuli first passing through the amygdala, the emotional seat of the brain.
Of course, music is also a strong trigger of nostalgia, and evidence of this is not only in scientific journals, but almost certainly in your mp3 collection.
What’s the point of feeling nostalgic?
The brain is an incredibly energy intensive organ, on average using more glucose than your muscles every day. So it goes without saying that the brain doesn’t usually do anything without a good reason. So what’s the advantage of feeling nostalgic?
The first study I referenced above, by Wildschut and colleagues, found that people who reported feeling nostalgic also experienced increased social bonding and increased positive self-regard. On the surface this doesn’t seem like a big deal. But with a brain that supports consciousness comes problems that our lesser primate cousins don’t have. Being self-aware is an issue way too big to dissect the neuroscience here, but the problems that come with it are things we’ve all experienced: depression, self doubt, lack of motivation. Not usually life threatening in this modern age, but potentially deadly to our Stone Age ancestors. If they gave up trying to make fire or struggling to find food because it was just too hard to bear, then you wouldn’t be reading this as we’d both be extinct.
In this context, nostalgia might be seen as a natural anti-depressant, something to hang onto to keep us motivated.
A note of caution here though: as I mentioned the neuroscience behind nostalgia is still in its infancy, so for now the best tools to examine it are psychological ones. Since psychology doesn’t preserve as well as a stone axe head, we can only infer what our ancestors were thinking. While this won’t always turn out to be right, it’s always fun to do.
Nostalgia is fluid and memories aren’t fixed
Our brain isn’t the hard drive of a computer, and our memories aren’t hard coded and unchangeable. Every time you recall a memory it may become subtly altered and associated with what ever it was that triggered that old memory. If this trigger happens repeatedly, then you’re adding new layer of interpretation that will be recalled automatically with the old memory next time it’s called up.
A great example of this in action that also demonstrates fluid nostalgia, is the backlash against George Lucas. A large portion of 70’s and 80’s children had grown up owning Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader figures and playing in the backyard pretending sticks were light sabers. Fond childhood memories.
When the first abysmal Star Wars Prequel was released the strong feelings against the film weren’t just those of disappointment at a bad movie. If it were that simple, we should also feel the same way about Police Academy 7.
The reaction can be partly explained by the sense of attack on our previously fond feelings. Watching the new movie automatically calls up memories from the previous series and all the pleasant childhood playtime memories associated with it. But recalling these fond memories in the context of a negative experience begins the process of re-coding, or modifying our old memories. This is an undesirable outcome for nostalgia as it is usually such a pleasant feeling. Naturally there is some resistance and cognitive dissonance when this happens and the brain will try to avoid it like any other unpleasant experience.
That our brain actually allows this process of modifying old memories can actually be a good thing when it’s used in techniques like aversion therapy to overcome phobias. A more common example is a smoker in the midst of quitting, re-learning not to associate having a couple of drinks at a bar with a cigarette.
Fake nostalgia
Things used to be better in the “Good old days”. But were things really better in the past than they are now? How do we reconcile nostalgia for our high school days and the horribly awkward, pimply teenage angst that goes with it?
As I wrote this, ELO’s “Don’t bring me down” shuffled onto my playlist and my thoughts were immediately cast back to my formative decade, the cheesy 80’s.
But oddly enough, I never listened to ELO in the 80’s.
In fact I can’t consciously recall hearing any of their music other than the theme to the movie Xanadu. While I was always aware of their existence, I only recently “discovered” them through using Pandora. So why is it possible to feel nostalgic about something that we didn’t even experience?
One study has hinted that in some cases the positive feelings of nostalgia are actually just the positive sensation at having recalled an old memory correctly, rather than any emotional impact the original memory may have had. In my case, ELO’s music was instantly recognizable as sounding like the 80’s, while not being specifically tied to a particular event in my life. But while this nostalgia was a new creation, there are examples of more specific, neutral, memories becoming nostalgic with time.
I heard a lot of Duran Duran on the radio growing up. But I didn’t like them. I never bought their albums and if I thought of them at all, I thought they were just more disposable pop garbage. And yet, when I’m lazing back and indulging in VH1’s “I love the 80’s” marathon, I feel all reflective and pleasantly nostalgic when I hear “Hungry like the Wolf”.
This, like ELO is intimately tied to the era I grew up in, so while I had no personal connection to either of them, they do get me to successfully recall the mid 80’s vividly. It’s nostalgia by association.
Exploiting nostalgia
The most prominent example of this kind of fake nostalgia is actually all around us – advertising.
Marketing experts tell us again and again that the key to sales is to make a connection to the customer. Clearly it’s easier and faster to co-opt our fond memories than create a brand new positive association with your product. Two giants of advertising, Pepsi and Coke, appear to be masters at tapping into our fake nostalgia with many of their commercials vividly displaying their generational history. At its heart, their message is “Remember way back when you were young? Well, we were there with you”.
In a less overtly corporate money-making way, this artificial nostalgia may also explain delightful retro-silliness like the band The Darkness who released some very 80′s inspired tracks in 2003 (see video below), which I can’t listen to without also fondly thinking of Spinal Tap.
Let’s remember the good times
There’s not a lot of scientific literature studying nostalgia, but the consensus is clear.
Nostalgia is exceptionally good at making us feel better when times are tough. It’s a little mental pick-me-up that reminds us of good times, good friends and a why it’s great to be alive.
Certainly, with the economy in the toilet I’m feeling more nostalgic than ever. But knowing that this feeling is actually a tool our brain uses to keep us on track is just amazing. And that by itself is enough to make this neuroscientist happy. That, and the happiest song in ELO’s discography:
(RSS & Email readers may need to click through to access player)
Thinking about nostalgia so much has left me sitting here with a big stupid grin on my face and a new 80’s playlist on my iPod. Join me on future sciencey trips down memory lane by getting instant updates by RSS or Email.
I’m also wondering who will be the first to name all the figures from the “Nostalgic Supper” in the comments.
original image by Leonardo da Vinci remixed by Patrick
February 19th, 2009
February 19th, 2009at 10:26 am(#)
A friend of mine just emailed me one of your articles from a while back. I read that one a few more. Really enjoy your blog. Thanks
February 19th, 2009at 11:58 am(#)
I love that you put the veryevolved emblem on the table. Cool stuff.
I would definitely agree that music is a strong ignitor for nostalgia. Lots of great memories get recalled when you hear a song associated with a particular life era.
As usual, great work.
February 19th, 2009at 2:00 pm(#)
Ah Star Wars. I was born in 1977 and have always felt a strong connection with the first trilogy. It was the first movie we rented on our brand new Beta VCR and the first time it was aired on TV I taped it. I think I wore out the tape I watched it so much.
I liken the new trilogy to Lucas whoring out his child. And since Lucas is in the business of rewriting history (Greedo never shot first!) he should go back to Episode 1 and digitally remove Jar Jar Binks.
It’s funny now that I think about it I get nostalgic for the 80s, but not the 90s. Is it because it was too recent or because I was more innocent when I was younger?
February 19th, 2009at 2:06 pm(#)
This site, by the way, is great. Keep up the good work
February 19th, 2009at 7:23 pm(#)
haha, you’re so right … all my nostalgic music has helped get through so much
great site
February 19th, 2009at 8:36 pm(#)
I love it!
This morning I stopped into a bank–and straight away was transported to my childhood (it sounds like we’re maybe the same age–1966 child here).
This bank was vintage 1972, right down to the smell and the matronly tellers. I started laughing, and and told them “yes, this is a bank the way it’s supposed to be!”
I was amazed at how powerfully the patterns of sight and smell triggered such great emotions; and thinking back, as soon as I pointed it out, seemed to transfer to women who see that building every day. They became nostalgic, and seemed to lighten up dramatically (which could have simply been from seeing my excitement).
As for the painting, I can come close (I think):
- Don’t know the young woman
- Ferris Buehler
- Mario
- Spock
- Elaine
- Darth Vader
- Elvis
- The red guy snaps into some sort of toy, I think–Legos?
- Dr. Evil
- Derek Smalls
- Madonna maybe (talk about someone I didn’t like who makes me nostalgic!)
- Homer
- Robocop
And let’s not forget the Rubik’s Cube and TAB!
February 19th, 2009at 10:47 pm(#)
Great article as always Patrick, I’m really enjoying this site.
I know a lot of people who were bummed on the Star Wars “prequels”, I was never that into Star Wars so I didn’t feel the great distress they were obviously going through. I did get angry when Lucas put walkie talkies instead of guns in the ET remake though.
and I’ll just add to list of the above post, that girl is Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
February 20th, 2009at 12:13 pm(#)
Obviously the old Star Wars movies are masterpieces. The new ones aren’t as good – but I liked them. I really like Ewan McGregor as Obi-wan. Episode III is the best of the new movies, because it’s fun seeing it all come together. I would say Episode I was the worst.
February 20th, 2009at 4:39 pm(#)
@Rick – Cheers for visiting. Feel free to drop comments on the older articles too, as they are always up for disscussion.
@PFP – Music is a biggie, I’m thinking that the neuroscience of music needs it’s own separate article.
@Jack – I think you and I and many many others had that same video tape experience with Star Wars. As for 80′s vs 90′s nostalgia, I think distance in time does have something to do with it, but it’s not the whole story. I think when we are older, each year can be much like another, but we only get one childhood – where your brain is growing and everyday you’re discovering something and everything you encounter is amazing and new.
@Mickey – Right I’m convinced now that I need to do an article along the lines of “This is your brain on music”
@Barak – you nailed it with your bank story. And right on with the icons in the painting with the addition of……
@Matt – Bingo! Buffy fills in the gap. And those walkie talkies pissed me off too.
February 20th, 2009at 11:17 pm(#)
“I think when we are older, each year can be much like another, but we only get one childhood – where your brain is growing and everyday you’re discovering something and everything you encounter is amazing and new.”
Patrick,
The key word in this sentence is “can.”
In childhood we’re certainly growing and learning and discovering constantly. We can stop or continue as we get older–it just takes an intentional effort sometimes as adults.
That’s the key, in my mind, to being happy and fulfilled in the long run.
February 23rd, 2009at 3:14 pm(#)
Or like in the future, we will be made to remember Green Day as just as important as The Who…
(mark my words!)
February 23rd, 2009at 3:23 pm(#)
@Kevin – Whatever I think of Green Day, I can’t disagree with you. I see way too many 80′s bands on tour right now to think that it’s not going to happen again in 20 years!
February 23rd, 2009at 3:35 pm(#)
1) #6 is correct on all the people in the picture he knew. The girl on the far left is Sarah Michelle Gellar, presumably as Buffy, the vampire slayer. It is indeed a LEGO spaceman figure and Madonna.
2) Agree with #11 – Green Day is indeed going to be one of the remembered bands of their generation. From simple beginnings they now produce some of the most sophisticated popular music on the radio, and I do expect they’ll have quite an enduring legacy.
February 23rd, 2009at 5:27 pm(#)
I’m wondering what media historians in 50 years will make of all the debating going on about Lucas v His Fans?
I think the argument is sound only if the newest movies were of the same quality. The reason there isn’t backlash over Police Academy 7 is because it was only slightly worse than Police Academy. Star Wars and Empire were good movies and the spearhead of a zeitgeist. Is it collective nostalgia then? The newer movies just aren’t good. It doesn’t take a cortical neurophysician to see that. Fans are upset because the movies were bad and we EXPECTED more out of them because the first ones were better. It has nothing to do with going against memory.
Star Wars is the example because it’s huge. It was huge when it came out, it’s huge now. It’s awesome in the literal meaning of the word. It cannot be stopped. What upsets me, and likely most fans, is the lack of appreciation Lucas has for his own product, a product any number of people, and given the opportunity, any fan could have done better.
You get the same reaction from a poor sophomore album release, but if the band is local, the backlash is local. It’s not the mind, it’s standards.
February 23rd, 2009at 7:00 pm(#)
Have to say I loved this article, but all the ELO makes me nostalgic for is the “Love & Monsters” episode of Doctor Who!
February 23rd, 2009at 7:13 pm(#)
@Edward – You sir are a genius! That is exactly what triggered me to seek them out on Pandora, after not having experienced them in the 80′s.
February 24th, 2009at 9:08 am(#)
Nice touch, sir.. especially with the Darkness
February 24th, 2009at 9:21 am(#)
That’s why advertisers dip into things 10-15 years back because they figure that those with most purchasing power (i.e. recent college grads, newly employed, singles, etc) will be reminded of simpler, nostalgic times. I remember when I graduated a few years ago, I saw an 80′s comeback and now I see a 90′s comeback.
February 24th, 2009at 10:06 am(#)
Great article, but you’re getting the ’70s and ’80s mixed up. Don’t Bring Me Down came out in ’79 and ELO were pretty much irrelevant by the time MTV started in ’82. If anything The Darkness sounded more like ’70s rock bands like Boston.
Duran Duran – totally ’80s.
Signed,
’80s Child
February 24th, 2009at 10:37 am(#)
Loved the article…Here are the icons in the last supper photo:
-Sarah Michelle Gellar AKA Buffy the Vampire Slayer (series, not movie)
-Matthew Broderick AKA Ferris Bueller
-Mario from Mario Brothers games
-Leonard Nemoy as Spock in Star Trek
-Julia Louise Dreyfuss as Elaine in Seinfeld
-Darth Vader from Star Wars movies
-Elvis…nuff said
-Lego Man
-Mike Myers as Dr. Evil from Austin Powers movie trilogy
-Harry Shearer as Derek Smalls from Spinal Tap (excellent movie)
-Madonna
-Homer Simpson
-Robocop
February 24th, 2009at 2:12 pm(#)
Wow! Awesome article….
February 25th, 2009at 9:17 am(#)
The thing that amazes me, is that as we are talking nostalgia, so many people have user names for sites that trigger nostalgia for me.
qwijibo – A fat, dumb, balding, North Ameican ape with a short temper.
Usagi Yojimbo – I know that he has his own comics, but I was a child of the 80′s and as such, will always associate him with a set of turtles…and as a side note, when I started learning Japanese and found out Usagi meant Rabbit, I was downright gleeful with nostalgia.
I was able to name all the characters above as well, and spotted the TAB right away…nice job.
February 25th, 2009at 10:47 am(#)
Loved this blog!
Scent seems to be the biggest memory trigger for me.
Back in ’95/’96 I was an exchange student in Maine.
That entire senior year I absolutely loved the perfume Charlie Red. I think I wore that perfume the most that year.
When I got back in Holland I hardly wore it, I guess I wanted a new signature smell? I did wear it to school, but just once. It was during an exam, and I totally made a mess of it. I could NOT concentrate. That particular smell was Lewiston High School for me, and all I could do was think about my year there. And feeling homesick for Lewiston
I never wore it after that! Kept the bottle, occasionally I take it out the drawer and sniff it, and have me a nice trip down memory lane
I also remember certain smells perfectly. When I got back to Lewiston High School on a visit 7 years later, I was flabbergasted by the fact that everything smelt exactly the same!
March 1st, 2009at 6:11 pm(#)
Spielberg replaced the guns with walkie talkies in E.T., not Lucas.
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,181608,00.html
March 1st, 2009at 8:49 pm(#)
Illusions require certain conditions to be effective. People have to be willing to buy into something for it to matter. Nostalgia gives energy to any documentation that creates a sense of the past (i.e. photo albums, yearbooks, music). It all distracts you from the reality of presence. As a person learns to just be, the past dissolves. Illusions offer a glimpse into how the brain works by revealing hidden, underlying mechanisms in a way that normal perception fails. Visual. auditory and other sense illusions all convince a person he has evolved when core consciousness is always the same. You hide from it.
June 2nd, 2009at 4:28 pm(#)
I remember back in the 70′s, all the 50′s nostalgia. There was Happy Days and then a little later in the late 70′s -early 80′s there was the Stray Cats who were throw-backs to the 50′s Rock-a-Billy/Johnny Cash/Jerry Lee Lewis and the big band music from about the same era.
I was born in 1960 and even I devloped a nostalgia for the 50′s.
All the sytles seem to have about a 20 year cycle back to popularity via nostalgia. Perhaps there is a longer style cycle of about 40 years. I often wondered why people are wearing those ugly black plastic rimmed glasses now. Pretty women making themselves look like 1950′s bookworms. When I was a kid they were the ugliest things on Earth. But 40 years ago that was about all there was.
June 7th, 2009at 11:22 am(#)
I agree that the neuroscience of music needs its own article. The reason I discovered this site is because I recently ran across a list of the top songs of 1976 (when I was three years old). I realized that many of the songs — particularly the ones that haven’t remained radio staples since then — bring up a very strong, pleasant, but undefined, feeling of…nostalgia. (My parents’ car, my grandmother’s house, my old street, etc.) To some degree, I feel it for lots of things from the ’70s and ’80s (the era of my childhood), like everyone, I’m sure. But the stuff from 1976 and 1977…the feeling’s just different, and when I pull up those songs on the web and listen to them, I can really get lost in that feeling. Does anyone know if there’s something special about the age of three, and what’s happening to the brain at that point as it relates to music? (I have a daughter who’s almost two…but I wonder if the songs she likes now — like the theme to the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, for example, will even ring a bell when she’s older.)
June 14th, 2009at 5:11 pm(#)
Hi,
I am currently studying music productionat university and for my final project I am writing, performing and producing an EP. Each song on the EP will exist as a modern interpretation of a “Retro” musical style and will be shaped by extensively researching, reflecting upon and incorporating the vintage charm and “nostalgic” appeal of some of the musical genres, which have helped to define and inspire our times.
Three of the questions I seek to answer are relevant to this post, therefore I was hoping to get a few opinions from you if you are interested?
The questions are as follows:
Is the emotional resonance conveyed by “retro” inspired music (Duffy/Amy Winehouse/LadyHawke) routed in art or commerce?
What is the impact of these modern retro revivals on younger generations who may have little or no sentimental connection to the musical styles of the recent past?
Is extended exposure to music from the past, the best way to keep it alive?
I’m finding it very difficult to find any literature on the subject. Especially up to date and current information regarding the current music industry. If anybody would like to comment or could point me in the right direction I would be extremely grateful.
Thank you,
Marie
October 15th, 2009at 9:32 am(#)
Nostalgia for me is conjured up through visuals, I’m only 20 years old but if I look at knitting patterns from the 50′s or old photographs I get a sense of nostalgia. I think it’s a wanting for me, I want to have memories of traditions past down and the feeling of being ‘proper.’ I live in England and I don’t know if it differs between different countries but roses, cobbled streets and old jazz music makes me feel like I should have been there in that time. Maybe there are varieties of nostalgia?
This is a really interesting blog
Cheers
Steph