Your favorite song might not just lift your spirits — it could also help ease your pain.
Music has long been hailed as a powerful therapeutic tool, but the science behind its brain-boosting effects is still unfolding.
New research suggests the secret might lie in the tempo, and tailoring the beat to your own rhythm could hold the key to pain relief.
“In the past, it has often been suggested that soothing or relaxing music works best as a pain reliever,” said Caroline Palmer, a professor in the department of psychology at McGill University and co-senior author of the study.
“But this didn’t seem precise enough. So, we set out to investigate whether the tempo — the rate at which a passage is produced and one of music’s core elements — could influence its capacity to reduce pain.”
Previous research has shown that every person has a unique, natural rhythm when performing actions like walking, clapping or playing an instrument. This phenomenon, called the spontaneous production rate, is thought to be tied to our circadian rhythm.
The McGill researchers wondered: Could syncing music to that natural rhythm help reduce pain?
To test their theory, they enlisted 60 participants — some musicians, others not — who were asked to tap the rhythm of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” at the rate that felt most comfortable to them on a touch-sensitive pad, which captured their natural tempo.
Next, they subjected the participants to low levels of pain, either while in silence or while listening to music set at their preferred rhythm, or at a rate 15% faster or slower.
The results were promising. Researchers found that music of whatever kind and at whatever tempo significantly reduced participants’ perceptions of pain compared to silence.
Notably, they rated their pain levels lowest when the melodies were played at the rate that matched their natural tempo.
“It is possible that the neural oscillations that are responsible for driving our preferred tempo at a particular rate are more easily pulled along when a musical tempo is closer to our own natural tempo,” said Mathieu Roy, an associate professor in the department of psychology at McGill and the co-senior author of the paper. “As a result, they are pulled away from the neural frequencies associated with pain.”
For centuries, music has been valued for its calming qualities, helping people relax, explore their emotions and regulate moods.
Research shows that it can influence brain chemistry, stimulating the production of dopamine, the pleasure hormone and reducing cortisol, the “fight or flight” hormone. This partly explains why music therapy has been shown to effectively ease anxiety, depression and chronic stress.
Music therapy is also commonly used in physical rehabilitation. For example, rhythmic auditory stimulation is used to improve motor skills in patients recovering from a stroke or traumatic brain injury.
The McGill team said their findings open the door to using personalized music to reduce pain.
Next, they plan to use electroencephalography to monitor neural activity and confirm that the rate of neuronal firing aligns with the music’s tempo. They also hope to test their method on people dealing with chronic pain or pain linked to medical procedures.
