Reducing Pain With Focused Music Listening

NCT ID: NCT05267795

Last Updated: 2022-03-04

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 62 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2019-04-22
• Study Completion Date: 2020-10-30

Brief Summary

Pain-reducing effects of music listening are well-established, but the effects are small and their clinical relevance questionable. Recent theoretical advances, however, have proposed that synchronizing to music, such as clapping, tapping or dancing, has evolutionarily important social effects that are associated with activation of the endogenous opioid system (EOS; which supports both analgesia and social bonding). Thus, active sensorimotor synchronization to music could have stronger analgesic effects than simply listening to music. However, to the best of the investigators' knowledge, the hypothesis of an EOS activation by sensorimotor synchronization to music has never been investigated. Accordingly, the investigators set up a test with the premise that if sensorimotor synchronization to music indeed activates the EOS, then it should have larger pain-reducing effects than simply listening to music. Using pressure algometry to the fingernails, specific amounts of pain were delivered to healthy adults either during music listening or silence, while either performing an active tapping task or a passive control task. As the dependent variable, perceived pain was rated on a scale ranging from 1 to 9 (1 = very little, 5 = medium, 9 = very strong). In addition, to pain ratings, participants provided ratings of their emotional state in terms of pleasantness as well as arousal, and then rated their familiarity with the music (also on scales ranging from 1 to 9). Emotion ratings were obtained to explore whether the mechanisms driving pain-reducing effects of sensorimotor synchronization to music include emotion. At the end of the experiment, participants also rated their preference for the music on a scale ranging from 1 to 9 (see Method). Familiarity and preference ratings were obtained to elucidate possible contributions of these factors on pain reduction.

Conditions

Pain

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NA
• Intervention Model: SINGLE_GROUP
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Operationalization

The experiment used a 2x2 within-subjects design in which participants either listened to music or underwent a silent control period and either performed an active foot tapping task, or a passive control task with no movement resulting in four experimental trial types: (a) Music Active (music with tapping); (b) Music Passive (music without tapping); (c) Silence Active (silence with tapping); and (d) Silence Passive (silence without tapping). The allocation of the music excerpts to the task (active, passive) was random, and the order of the four experimental trial types was counterbalanced.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Experimentally-induced pain

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Specific pain levels were applied on the participants' fingernails in each of 40 experimental trials using pressure algometry.

Interventions

Experimentally-induced pain

Specific pain levels were applied on the participants' fingernails in each of 40 experimental trials using pressure algometry.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• 18 years or older
• Healthy

Exclusion Criteria

• History of a psychiatric or neurological disease
• History of substance dependence
• use of any prescription drugs
• Hearing impairment
• Musical anhedonia

• Minimum Eligible Age: 19 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 35 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

The Research Council of Norway

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Bergen

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Stefan Koelsch, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Bergen, Norway

Locations

University of Bergen

Bergen, Bergen Municipality, Norway

Countries

Norway

References

Werner LM, Skouras S, Bechtold L, Pallesen S, Koelsch S. Sensorimotor synchronization to music reduces pain. PLoS One. 2023 Jul 28;18(7):e0289302. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0289302. eCollection 2023.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 37506059 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

BFS Toppforsk

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id