It all began with a participatory research study Timmerman conducted at Lowlands in 2016. Some 400 festival-goers volunteered to be subjected to pain by Timmerman and his team. “We did several pain measurements with pressure stimuli and electrical stimuli. We then had participants listen to their favourite music, silence, or songs they disliked. The results show that people experience less pain with silence than when they listened to music they disliked. And when they listened to their favourite songs, pain levels decreased even further.” Aside from personal preference, the loudness, timbre and rhythm of a song also play a role.
Music has a dampening effect
Music certainly does more than just shift your thoughts. Blaney Davidson: “People are often quick to attribute pain relief through music to distraction. But there’s more to it than that. For example, brain research in mice has shown that pleasant music has a dampening effect on the transmission of a pain stimulus. So it also actively inhibits pain, and this effect was still visible in the mice days later.”
More than just a symptom
Pain is unpleasant but it also has an important warning function. If you felt no pain, you would miss the signal of abdominal pain when your appendix is inflamed, which could lead to dangerous situations. In people with chronic pain, this warning function no longer works properly. Unfortunately, scientists have as yet found no solution for this. Timmerman emphasises: “Pain is a disease in itself, and not just a symptom. It affects approximately 20% of the Dutch population. Sometimes you don't see any symptoms, but the pain is still there. For this large group, pain relief may be even more important. Blaney Davidson: “People often don't know that they can to some extent influence their pain themselves. For example by listening to their favourite music, but also through activities like dancing, exercise, colouring, and social activities, all of which help to reduce the experience of pain.”
Attention and awareness
By and large, relatively few people know that music can contribute to pain relief. There is little attention for this, which is a shame, the researchers think. Timmerman: “There is as yet little awareness around it, although that is slowly changing, and it is starting to find its way to patients and patient associations.” Blaney Davidson: “There are small groups that use it on their own initiative. But the wider healthcare sector is not implementing it yet. And there is little money for research on pain. People simply see pain as a symptom that comes with an illness, and so there is less focus on it. That is why it is important to keep telling this story.”
Timmerman: “Either way, we need to devote more attention to learning about pain management. Personally, I'd love to dig further into the effect of music on pain to help patients with chronic pain.”
Suffering pain with Frans Bauer
At the Radboud Sounds festival, Timmerman and Blaney Davidson more or less reproduced their Lowlands study, with success and much hilarity. A room full of people had a clothes peg attached to their nose while listening successively to Frans Bauer and Harry Styles. The audience agreed that the perception of pain was much more intense with Frans than with Harry. If you happen to have no music at hand, swearing or shouting ‘au’ very loudly also helps, the researchers say.
This article was inspired by the lustrum festival Radboud Sounds.
Text: Pleuni van Keulen voor Radboud Recharge. Photo: Genaro Servín via Pexels.
Radboud Recharge: the Sound of Summer, playlist
music, approached scientifically. And with a playlist on Spotify: Radboud Recharge: the Sound of Summer. Esmeralda Blaney Davidson and Hans Timmerman added these numbers: * Watermelon Sugar, Harry Styles* Als sterren aan de hemel staan, Frans Bauer