I S anyone immune to the power of music?
Tastes may vary, but this art form touches our hearts as well as our brains.
A Canadian study even claims that listening to music could be at least as effective as analgesic medication in reducing the intensity of physical pain. To reach this conclusion, researchers at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, enlisted the help of 63 healthy volunteers.
They used a probe to heat part of their left arm, so as to provoke a burning sensation similar to that of a hot cup of coffee on contact with the skin. During this time, participants in the study — recently published in the journal Frontiers in Pain Research — were asked to listen to two of their favourite songs, a relaxing track picked by the scientists, scrambled music or the sound of silence.
Each session was conducted over a period of seven minutes.
At the end of the experiment, volunteers were asked to rate the pleasantness of the music, their emotional arousal and the number of shivers or chills they experienced while listening.
This protocol revealed that the perception of the intensity and the unpleasantness of pain were significantly reduced when participants listened to one of their favourite songs, compared with other sounds. In other words, they seemed less sensitive to pain.
The findings suggest that music could be a drug-free way to reduce pain perception in humans.
“We can approximate that favourite music reduced pain by about one point on a 10-point scale, which is at least as strong as an over-the-counter painkiller like Advil [ibuprofen] under the same conditions.
Moving music may have an even stronger effect,” said Darius Valevicius, the first author of the research from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, quoted by the Guardian.
Moving music could be more effective
According to the researchers, the emotional responses generated by music — or musical chills, in scientific jargon — play an important role in blocking pain signals.
“The difference in effect on pain intensity implies two mechanisms — chills may have a physiological sensorygating effect, blocking ascending pain signals, while pleasantness may affect the emotional value of pain without affecting the sensation, so more at a cognitive-emotional level involving prefrontal brain areas,” Valevicius told the British newspaper.
However, this theory needs further research to verify its validity. In a world where thousands of new songs appear on streaming platforms every day, it is safe to assume that most music lovers do not have the same favourite tunes.
After talking to the volunteers, the academics found that those who listened to bittersweet, moving tracks felt less pain than others, especially if the latter had an affinity for happy or calming compositions.
Despite their promise, the findings of this study should be interpreted with caution. Indeed, the results obtained have certain limitations, particularly with regard to the length of time spent listening to music and the small number of volunteers involved. Still, the findings point to a new field of exploration for music therapy. – ETXDailyUp
