2023-10-28 05:00:00
The music softens morals, they say. This popular proverb seems to find its origins in the writings of Plato who certainly knew how to take advantage of its consoling and educational virtues. Moreover, can we attribute other unsuspected powers to it? That of soothing pain, for example…
You probably asked yourself this question during your last breakup. Indeed, following listening to your playlist « bad mood », suddenly you felt much better. According to this recent study which corroborates what some artichoke hearts have already understood, this little miracle is not really one.
Music as a natural painkiller
For these Canadian researchers whose work has been published in the journal Frontiers in Pain Research, listening to sad songs allows us to regulate our bad mood, to evacuate our negative emotions and above all, to suffer less. “We can estimate that favorite music reduces pain by regarding one point on a 10-point scale, which is at least as strong as an over-the-counter pain reliever, such as Advil (ibuprofen), under the same conditions . Moving music might have an even greater effect”advanced to Guardia Darius Valevicius, first author of this study carried out at McGill University in Montreal.
To measure the effectiveness of this natural painkiller, our academics invited sixty-three healthy participants to come to one of their laboratories. On site, a probe reproducing a sensation similar to that of a cup of very hot tea was applied directly to the skin of their arm.
A sad song to suffer less
The guinea pigs for a day listened to either two of their favorite songs of all time, or one that they would take to a desert island; either soothing music selected for them; or scrambled music; or silence. They were then asked to rate the intensity of the pain felt.
The results showed that participants rated the pain as less unpleasant by regarding four points on a scale of 100, and less painful by regarding nine points when they listened to the music they cherish, compared to silence or garbled sound. The relaxing music selected for them did not have any particular effects.
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An interesting barrier to pain
According to Darius Valevicius, the frisson musical might well be an interesting barrier to pain. “I think it’s something that I and probably many people understand intuitively why we listen to bittersweet, melancholy or even spiritual music”, he was able to confide. To meditate.
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