Emotional responses to favourite and moving music can decrease sensitivity to pain, a study has shown.
This comes after researchers in Canada studied how important the listener’s relationship with their preferred music was in reducing pain.
The study found that music chills and pleasantness are important factors in causing music-induced hypoalgesia – a reduced sensitivity to pain.
In addition, a moving/bittersweet response to music had a significantly bigger impact on reducing pain unpleasantness compared to energising/activating, happy/cheerful, or calming/relaxing responses to music.
The researchers conducted an experiment with 63 individuals to determine the relationship between emotional responses and pain unpleasantness. They interviewed each individual to find out their favourite music and to analyse the themes that emerged.
A thermal probe device was then used on the surface of their forearm, creating a sensation similar to ‘a hot cup of coffee held against the skin’. While doing so, different music – or silence – was played, and the participants were asked to rate the unpleasantness of the pain.
‘Favourite music reduced pain’
Darius Valevicius is the lead author of the research from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Speaking to The Guardian, he said: ‘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.’
He added: ‘The difference in effect on pain intensity implies two mechanisms – chills may have a physiological sensory-gating 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 also added that more work is needed to test these ideas. You can read the full study here.
What are your thoughts on this story? Do you play music during dental treatment? Share your thoughts to [email protected]
Follow Dentistry.co.uk on Instagram to keep up with all the latest dental news and trends.
