A new study finds that listening to our favorite music and the emotional responses it produces, especially bittersweet music, is more effective in reducing our perception of pain than unfamiliar relaxing music. Research results suggest that music may be a good drug-free analgesic.
As early as the late 1990s, the British rock band The Verve once sang: "Because this is a symphony of bittersweetness, this is life." According to a new study, the band seems to be on to something, specifically the impact of music on our experience of pain.
Researchers at the University of Montreal have found that the music we love, especially the emotions brought on by listening to bittersweet music, may be an effective, drug-free way to reduce pain.
Darius Valevicius, first author of the study, said: "In our study, we showed that favorite music selected by study participants had a much greater effect on acute heat pain reduction than unfamiliar relaxation music. We also found that emotional responses play a very important role in predicting whether music will have an impact on pain."
Music is known to have a hypoalgesic effect, that is, it reduces people's sensitivity to painful stimuli. But to discern which music was most effective at reducing pain, researchers applied moderately painful thermal stimulation to the inner forearms of 63 participants, a sensation similar to holding a hot tea cup against the skin. The pain is paired with musical excerpts, each lasting approximately seven minutes.
Listening to their favorite music significantly reduced participants' pain intensity and unpleasantness compared to a control or silent track. Unfamiliar tracks designed for relaxation had less of an impact on pain perception than the participants' favorite music.
"In addition, we used garbled music, which is similar to music in every way except for its meaningful structure, so we can conclude that it may not be just the presence of distraction or sound stimulation that causes low pain," Valevicius said.
The researchers then interviewed participants about their favorite songs and analyzed four themes related to categories of emotional experience: uplifting/enlivening, happy/cheerful, calm/relaxing, and touching/bittersweet. They wanted to see if emotional themes could modulate the pain-relieving effects of favorite music.
"We found that reports of emotional experiences that were moving or bittersweet seemed to lead to lower pain unpleasantness ratings, and this was driven by greater musical enjoyment and more musical chills," Vallevicius said.
While they didn't define "music chill" in their paper, the researchers noted that previous neurological research suggests that dopamine pathways in the brain may underlie both enjoyment of music and music-induced chills. In some people, chills can manifest as a tingling sensation, shivering or goosebumps, researchers say.
The researchers were also aware of the limitations of their study, including how long participants listened to the music samples. For example, listening to relaxation music for longer periods of time may have stronger effects than the shorter tracks listened to in studies. Further research could explore whether favorite music can effectively reduce non-thermal pain, such as mechanical stimulation or chronic pain.
Valevicious said: "Especially when it comes to emotional themes in favorite music, such as moving/bittersweet, we are exploring new aspects of the psychology of music listening that have not been well studied, especially in relation to pain relief. Therefore, our existing data are limited, although the preliminary results are quite strong."
The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Pain Research.