Passive music listening has shown its capacity to soothe pain in several clinical and experimental studies. This phenomenon—known as music-induced analgesia—could partly be explained by the modulation of pain signals in response to the stimulation of brain and brainstem centers. We hypothesized that music-induced analgesia may involve inhibitory descending pain systems. We assessed pain-related responses to endogenous pain control mechanisms known to depend on descending pain modulation: peak of first pain (PP), temporal summation (TS), and diffuse noxious inhibitory control (DNIC). Twenty-seven healthy participants (14 men, 13 women) were exposed to a conditioned pain modulation paradigm during a 20-minute relaxing music session and a silence condition. Pain was continually measured with a visual analogue scale. Pain ratings were significantly lower with music listening (p < .02). Repeated measures ANOVA indicated significant differences between conditions within PP and TS (p < .05) but not in DNIC. Those findings suggested that music listening could strengthen components of the inhibitory descending pain pathways operating at the dorsal spinal cord level.

中文翻译：

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音乐对第一次疼痛的影响和第二次疼痛的时间总和

在几项临床和实验研究中，被动音乐聆听已显示出其缓解疼痛的能力。这种现象——被称为音乐诱发的镇痛——可以部分解释为响应大脑和脑干中心的刺激而调节疼痛信号。我们假设音乐诱发的镇痛可能涉及抑制性下行疼痛系统。我们评估了已知依赖于下行疼痛调制的内源性疼痛控制机制的疼痛相关反应：首次疼痛峰值 (PP)、时间总和 (TS) 和弥漫性有害抑制控制 (DNIC)。27 名健康参与者（14 名男性，13 名女性）在 20 分钟的放松音乐和沉默条件下暴露于条件性疼痛调节模式。用视觉模拟量表连续测量疼痛。听音乐时疼痛等级显着降低 (p < .02)。重复测量方差分析表明 PP 和 TS 内的条件之间存在显着差异 (p < .05)，但在 DNIC 中则没有。这些发现表明，听音乐可以增强脊髓背侧抑制性下行疼痛通路的成分。