Perspectives on Music and Pain: from evidence to theory and application

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Background

It is commonly appreciated that music may offer a means of reducing pain and improving well-being through complementary or alternative low-cost, non-pharmacological, enjoyable interventions. Despite many past studies, there is limited understanding of how music might modulate pain perception and how the brain responds to nociceptive inputs while listening to music. It is not known whether effects attributable to music are unique to music or common to other distractions, acoustic stimuli, or arts engagement. Recently brain activity has been variously measured (e.g., EEG, fMRI) under different levels of pain and presence/absence of music; animal models are being explored, randomized controlled behavioral studies are being conducted, and qualitative research methodology is being applied to the experience of pain. To this methodological richness can be added the dimension of specific diseases or health conditions each of which may benefit in unique ways from music interventions on unique time courses and contexts, for example, pre- and post-surgery, group vs individual, degree of agency, and music characteristics. The topic draws on information from a wide variety of disciplines including neuroscience, animal behavior, human behavioral medicine, social psychology, nursing, various medical specialties, and music therapy among others.

The goal of this Research Topic is to bring together a collection of papers that individually and collectively consider the use of music as a means of reducing or alleviating pain in any of its forms and contexts. In doing so, for the first time, information from diverse disciplines, providing data and analysis on micro-and-macroscopic scales, derived from multiple research methodologies, will be made available at one site, such that gaps in knowledge may on the one hand become clearer and on the other may be filled in, with the aim of providing a foundation that may ultimately lead to an understanding of the best way to exploit this non-pharmacological and non-invasive means of pain reduction in its many settings and circumstances.

Special focus will be given to theory driven research and/or theoretical accounts of findings, but empirical demonstrations or insightful, evidence-based opinions will also be appreciated. We welcome the submission of manuscripts including, but not limited to, the following topics associated with the study of the ability of music to decrease pain broadly defined:

• fMRI measures of brain analgesic channels during music interventions of noxious stimulation

• EEG responses and endorphin activity arising during music interventions

• randomized control trials evaluating music vs other interventions on pain perception

• qualitative studies of the experience of pain with and without music

• animal models of effects of music on pain

• musical attributes of effective music-induced analgesia

• effects of music on the pain associated with sports training (e.g., high intensity interval training)

• role of spatial audio and immersive 3D environment on pain

• current meta-analyses of effect of music on anxiety and pain

• use of music to alleviate mental health distress, e.g., in nursing homes, older adults

• comparison of effects of group vs individual engagement in music for pain reduction

• The effect of a music intervention on health-condition-specific pain. E.g., fibromyalgia, cataract surgery, cystoscopy, PTSD, hypertension, cancer (specific type), childbirth anxiety and pain, neonatal depression, pre- and post-surgical pain, etc.

• Historical context of the application of music to alleviate pain

• Musical anhedonia and pain response

• Developmental considerations: use of music to reduce pain in infancy, childhood, adolescence, middle age, older years

Keywords: Music, Pain, Neural models; Neurohormonal models, Animal Models, RCT, acoustic, music therapy, psychotherapy, meta-analysis, cognitive agency, endorphins

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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