Carlos Solis
Previous research has shown that chronic pain shrinks part of the brain’s ‘body map’ (the areas that track sensations in different parts of the body). However, some people tolerate pain better because their brains are less sensitive to it.
Knowing that prolonged musical practice positively impacts the brain — for example, by improving cognitive abilities — a team of researchers from Aarhus University wondered whether making music is linked to how people perceive pain.
What Did the Researchers Discover?
Over several days, scientists induced pain in the arms of 19 musicians and 20 non-musicians to see whether their reactions to those sensations differed.
To induce pain, the researchers injected participants with a safe protein known as a nerve growth factor, as reported by Independent. This protein supports nerve health but causes muscle pain for several days, especially if the arm is moved frequently.
The researchers then measured the participants’ brain responses to the injected pain. They also created brain maps before the injection, two days after, and again eight days later.
The team found striking differences in how the brains of musicians responded to pain compared with those of non-musicians.
“While the arm’s brain map in non-musicians shrank after just two days of pain, the arm’s brain map in musicians remained unchanged. The more hours they practiced, the less pain they felt. The results clearly showed that musicians’ brains reacted differently to pain,” said study co-author Anna Samorano.
The researchers suggest that musical training acts as a buffer against the typical negative impact of pain on the brain. However, music cannot serve as a universal remedy for chronic pain.
According to Dr. Samorano, the findings will help develop new treatment methods for people living with pain.
In future studies, the scientists plan to test whether regular music-making can protect people with chronic pain from declines in attention and cognitive abilities.
Photo: Unsplash
