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Music has the best chance of providing pain reliaf when it is played at our natural rhythm, a mcgill university research team has discovered.
This sugges it may be possible to reduce a patient’s level of pain by using technology to take a paper of music someone likes and adjust the tempo to match their internal Rhythm, the responses.
The discovery was the subject of a paper Published in Pain,
Exploring which aspect of Music Lessens Pain
Music has been used to alleviate pain for centuries. In recent years, there has been increasing scientific interest in using music to treat medical conditions ranging from parkinson’s dreams to strokes and chronic pain. But little is knowledge about how this might work.
“There have been very few studies that really look at specific parameters of music to undersrstand the effects of music on the brain,” Explained Mathieu Roy, An Associate of ASCOCIATE T mcgill and the co-Senior Author of the Paper.
“In the past, it hasraen begged that soothing or relaxing music works best as a pain Mance in the department of psychology and co-senior Author of the paper.
“But this Didn’t seem precise enough. So, we set out to investate where the tempo -ups rate at which a passage is proud and one of music’s core elements – Core Elements – CORECOULD EITS CAPACOLD CAPACTY TOETY to read.
Our oven internal beat may distract us from pain
Research over the Past Decade Has Shown That Whether We Speak, Sing, Play an instance or just tap along Omoftly. It is thought that this rhythm, Known as our spontaneous production rate (spr), may be tied to our circadian rhythms.
“It is possible that the neural oscillations that are responsible for driving our preferred tempo at a particular rate are more easily pulled along with a musical temopo is closer to our Natural TEO “As a result, they are pulled away from the neural frequencies associateed with pain.”
The Right Beat Reduces Level of Pain
To find out whichery listening to music at an individual’s natural tempo helped lower their experience of pain, the mcgill researchrs compared the pain ratings of 68 They were subjected to low levels of Pain, Eather In Silence or While Listening to Music that Had Been Manipulated So that its Tempo Eiter Matched The One that was most natural to each person or was slightly faster or slower.
Each Participant’s Natural Tempo was established by their tapping out the rhythm of a Well-Known Nursery Rhyme (Twinkle, Twinkle, Litle star) at the rate that was comfortable for he The touch-sensitive pad they tapped on produced the next tone in the sequence of the melody, thus capturing their natural tempo.
Over the course of 30 minters, participants underwent 12 blocks of tests in which 10 seconds of heat at various legs were applied intermittent to smle pads on their forearms GTS. Participants eater experienced the pain in Silence or listened to a melody they had selected at their preferred tempo, 15% faster or 15% slower. After Each Block of Tests, they were asked to rate their level of pain. At West, According to Roy, The Pain Was Like What You Feel When You Touch the outside of a hot coffee mug and pull your hand away Quickly because it’s too hot.
The right beat reduces pain the most
The Researchers found that, compared to Silence, Music of WHATEVER KIND and at WHATEVER Tempo Significantly Reduced Participants’ Perceters of Pain. More Important, they discovered the greatest Reductions in the ratings of the levels of pain Occurred when the Melodies were played at a rate that mathed the participant’s Own Preferred Tempo.
As a next step, the resultars said they would like to use electroncephalography to measure neural activity and confirm that rate of neuronal firing synchronizes with the extranal team. They are also indicated that they hope to test their findings with people living with chronic pain or pain associateed with medical procedus.
More information:
Wenbo yi et al, individualizing musical tempo to spontaneous rates maximizes music-induced hypoalgesia, Pain (2025). Doi: 10.1097/j.pain.000000000000003513
Citation: When using music to Alleviate Pain, Tempo Matters (2025, February 3) retrieved 3 February 2025 from
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