The Effects on Music on Pain Perception

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore a possible explanation for the beneficial role that music has been demonstrated to play in pain tolerance. Previous research has suggested that listening to self-chosen music reduces one’s perceived levels of pain and makes it easier to endure the pain for a longer duration of time, but the reason for this benefit is not well understood, nor whether the benefits of music are fundamentally similar to those you would find with other pleasurable distractions. To explore the role of pleasure in pain tolerance, the cold pressor task was used to test pain tolerance times of 39 participants, who each performed the cold pressor task while listening to preferred music, eating cookies, listening to an audiobook, and waiting in silence. This task, which involves submerging one’s hand in 41 degree water and holding it there as long as one can tolerate, is commonly used to test pain perception in experimental settings. After participants completed all four conditions of the cold pressor task, they were asked to re-experience each of the four distractors once more but without the pain induction and provided a pleasure rating for each distractor. Results showed that there was a significant effect of conditions on tolerance time. The music condition showed significantly longer tolerance times than the silence condition, but no other significant differences were observed. Self reported pleasure was significantly higher in the music and cookie conditions than in the silent and audiobook conditions. The cookie condition showed to have higher levels in pleasure compared to silence and the audiobook as well.