Listening to a song that you love makes it easier to tolerate pain by reducing the perception of it. A phenomenon called “hypoalgesia”.
- The researchers observed a greater reduction in pain when participants listened to their favorite music.
- Apart from these, it is moving music that reduces pain the most.
- They trigger an effective neurophysiological process to block pain signals.
When morale is low, some people listen to a song they like to boost themselves. Could this power of music be the same for physical pain? Yes, according to a study just published in the journal Frontiers in Pain Research. “We show that study participants’ favorite music has a much greater effect on pain reduction than unfamiliar relaxing music,” explains Darius Valevicius, one of the authors, in a communicated.
Less pain while listening to your favorite music
During their work, the scientists wanted to understand which music was most effective for hypoalgesiathat is to say the reduction in perception and reactivity to pain. To do this, the researchers created pain in the participants in the forearm using thermal stimuli. These reproduced, for example, the sensation of a hot cup of tea against the skin.
Results: Pain reduction was greater with the participants’ favorite music, compared to relaxing music or silence. “We also used scrambled music, which imitates music in all directions, (…) and we can conclude that it is probably not just distraction or the presence of a sound stimulus that causes hypoalgesia.“, says Darius Valevicius.
Emotional music influences the perception of pain
Aside from the participants’ favorite music, the scientists wanted to understand what types of music reduced pain the most. They defined several: energizing, joyful, relaxing, moving. Based on feedback from participants, moving music had the most impact. It provided a “more intense pleasure” And “more musical thrills“, according to Darius Valevicius. These can manifest as a tingling sensation, shivers or goosebumps and indicate, according to the authors, an effective neurophysiological process to block pain signals.
In the future, the researchers plan to continue their work because, according to them, the present study has several limitations. First, the sound clips were only seven minutes long, and the scientists want to test whether longer listening time can further reduce pain.
