Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31853196›Full record

ArticleJournal of pain research2019

Music Reduces Pain Unpleasantness: Evidence from an EEG Study.

Xuejing Lu, William Forde Thompson, Libo Zhang, Li Hu

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of pain research, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
22citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
4.0field-weighted citation impact, top 7% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 39 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
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  6. The Predominant Role of Musical Valence Over Arousal in Pain Modulation: A Psychophysiological Study.International journal of psychology : Journal international de psychologie · 2026
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  20. Pain Modulates Responses to Emotional Stimuli.Frontiers in psychology · 2020
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Xuejing LuCAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, People's Republic of China.ORCID 0000-0001-7586-5576
William Forde ThompsonDepartment of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Libo ZhangCAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
Li HuCAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences · CNARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders · AU

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundMusic is sometimes used as an adjunct to pain management. However, there is limited understanding of by what means music modulates pain perception and how the brain responds to nociceptive inputs while listening to music, because clinical practice typically involves the coexistence of multiple therapeutic interventions. To address this challenge, laboratory studies with experimental and control conditions are needed.

methodsIn the present investigation, we delivered nociceptive laser stimuli on 30 participants under three conditions - participants were sitting in silence, listening to their preferred music, or listening to white noise. Differences among conditions were quantified by self-reports of pain intensity and unpleasantness, and brain activity sampled by electroencephalography (EEG).

resultsCompared with the noise and silence conditions, participants in the music condition reported lower ratings on pain unpleasantness, as reflected by reduced brain oscillations immediately prior to the nociceptive laser stimulus at frequencies of 4-15 Hz in EEG. In addition, participants showed smaller P2 amplitudes in laser-evoked potentials (LEPs) when they were listening to music or white noise in comparison to sitting in silence. These findings suggest that a general modulation effect of sounds on pain, with a specific reduction of pain unpleasantness induced by the positive emotional impact.

conclusionMusic may serve as a real-time regulator to modulate pain unpleasantness. Results are discussed in view of current understandings of music-induced analgesia.

Indexed as

analgesic effectbrain oscillationsEEGemotional modulationpainpreferred music

Identifiers

PMID31853196
PMCPMC6916681
OpenAlexW2996682828

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.