Pumping effortless with music (Image: Dragan Trifunovic/Getty)
SEX and drugs and rock and roll. Release of the brain鈥檚 natural painkillers make the first two experiences feel good. Now it seems that these opoids are also responsible for music鈥檚 myriad effects on mood, pain and well-being, giving clues to how we can harness its benefits.
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Like other pleasurable experiences, there are two components to enjoying music: anticipation of hearing your favourite song, and then actually hearing it. The brain signalling chemical dopamine, which is linked to reward, . But neuroscientists have wondered for decades whether there was more to it 鈥� what gives music its power to induce euphoria?
The brain鈥檚 natural opioids could be key. An experiment carried out by team at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, showed that blocking opioid signals in the brain by giving people a drug called naltrexone reduces the amount of pleasure they report getting from their favourite song. They still enjoy the anticipation of hearing the song just as much, suggesting that, although dopamine is involved, it鈥檚 when the opioids kick in that music really starts to affect our minds.
A flood of opioids would also explain music鈥檚 effect on our body. Listening to music is known to raise people鈥檚 pain thresholds, so much so that in some cases, .
of the University of Oxford thinks Levitin鈥檚 results, which were presented at the in Nashville this week, help confirm opioids as the mediator of music鈥檚 power. His research shows that actively engaging with the music seems to strengthen the effect 鈥� singing, dancing or drumming all raise a person鈥檚 pain threshold more significantly than just listening.
This is an effect that at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, and at the University of Vienna in Austria, are trying to harness. They are working with a , a special type of exercise apparatus that allows music to be paired with weight training. The sounds change as the user pushes harder, and the music鈥檚 rhythm matches that of their workout. 鈥淚t makes the music really pleasurable 鈥� you have the perception that you鈥檙e being really extremely musically expressive,鈥� says Fritz.
They have shown that after 6 minutes of using the machine, . Exercising with machines also seems to raise a person鈥檚 pain threshold more than a standard, music-accompanied work out, they told conference delegates.
Their experiments are further support that opioids are involved. 鈥淚t鈥檚 another piece of the puzzle,鈥� says Bowling. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 need a neuroscientist to tell you that music can be invigorating, intensely pleasurable or sad, but this is an exciting time for research on music鈥檚 biological foundations.鈥�
Fritz is working on software that can provide similar 鈥渕usical feedback鈥� to users, which he says might help relieve pain for people recovering from strokes or drug addiction. Some hospitals already use music to relieve anxiety before surgery, and pain after. But of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden says it could be used more. 鈥淢usic is not used as much as it should be because it takes more of a nurse鈥檚 time than just giving a sedative.鈥�
While music has yet to be fully exploited clinically, Levitin says we routinely take advantage of its effects on our brain. 鈥淢any people use music to regulate their mood throughout the day. We use music to create a soundtrack to our lives,鈥� he says.
鈥淧eople use music to regulate their mood and create a soundtrack to their lives鈥�
Music therapy for all
The beneficial effects of music aren鈥檛 just related to how we deal with pain (see main story). Some people use music to control their mood , says Daniel Levitin of McGill University.
鈥淲e reach for a certain kind of music when we want to get going in the morning, and a different kind of music after we鈥檝e had a fight with somebody and we want to calm down,鈥� he says.
Music also seems to , affecting immune molecules such as leukocytes, cytokines and immunoglobulins.
And here鈥檚 one that we can all relate to: music can trigger memories 鈥� a feature that even seems to be preserved in some people with Alzheimer鈥檚 disease.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have found that while music-evoked memories tend to be less vivid than those triggered by other means, our recollections tend to be happy ones.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淏rain on music kills pain of workouts鈥�
