Highlights
- •Pain modulation by music is investigated with fMRI of the brain and spinal cord.
- •Behavioral responses showed a roughly 10% reduction of pain ratings with music.
- •fMRI showed altered responses to pain with music in spinal cord and higher structures.
- •Results suggest that music may evoke activation of the descending analgesia pathway.
Abstract
The oldest known method for relieving pain is music, and yet, to date, the underlying
neural mechanisms have not been studied. Here, we investigate these neural mechanisms
by applying a well-defined painful stimulus while participants listened to their favorite
music or to no music. Neural responses in the brain, brain stem, and spinal cord were
mapped with functional magnetic resonance imaging spanning the cortex, brain stem,
and spinal cord. Subjective pain ratings were observed to be significantly lower when
pain was administered with music than without music. The pain stimulus without music
elicited neural activity in brain regions that are consistent with previous studies.
Brain regions associated with pleasurable music listening included limbic, frontal,
and auditory regions, when comparing music to non-music pain conditions. In addition,
regions demonstrated activity indicative of descending pain modulation when contrasting
the 2 conditions. These regions include the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, periaqueductal
gray matter, rostral ventromedial medulla, and dorsal gray matter of the spinal cord.
This is the first imaging study to characterize the neural response of pain and how
pain is mitigated by music, and it provides new insights into the neural mechanism
of music-induced analgesia within the central nervous system.
Perspective
This article presents the first investigation of neural processes underlying music
analgesia in human participants. Music modulates pain responses in the brain, brain
stem, and spinal cord, and neural activity changes are consistent with engagement
of the descending analgesia system.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 28, 2014
Accepted:
July 7,
2014
Received in revised form:
June 6,
2014
Received:
April 7,
2014
Footnotes
Supported by the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation (grant no. 190703), the International Spinal Research Trust (U.K.), the Canada Research Chairs program, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Supplementary data accompanying this article are available online at www.jpain.org and www.sciencedirect.com.
Identification
Copyright
© 2014 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
