Trial reportJournal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation2025
Analgesic effects and neural oscillatory mechanisms of music-synchronized virtual reality intervention.
Trial report in Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled 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.
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.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Current trends and applications of virtual reality-assisted music therapy: a scoping review.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Chronic pain affects over 30% of the global population, yet non-pharmacological interventions with clear neurophysiological mechanisms remain limited. While virtual reality (VR) and music therapy independently show promise in pain management, the neural oscillatory underpinnings of rhythm-synchronized audiomotor integration in VR therapy remain poorly understood. This study aimed to investigate whether music-synchronized virtual reality (MSVR) enhances analgesia through distinct neural mechanisms compared to conventional distraction-based VR or non-immersive interventions. 90 healthy adults (45 female, 22 ± 2 years) were randomized to a single session of: (1) MSVR (rhythm-synchronized visuomotor tasks with music), (2) conventional VR (identical tasks with white noise), or (3) non-immersive 2D control. Pressure pain thresholds (PPT) were measured at five movement-generating muscle sites. Conditioned pain modulation (CPM) efficiency was assessed using PPT and cold-water stimulation. 64-channel EEG recorded theta, alpha, beta, and gamma oscillations. Outcomes included PPT changes, CPM efficiency, cold pain intensity/unpleasantness, and neural spectral power. MSVR significantly increased PPTs across all sites (15-25% vs. control, P < 0.001; superior to VR in upper limbs, P < 0.05) and enhanced CPM efficiency by 18% (vs. control, P = 0.010; vs. VR, P = 0.046). Cold pain intensity decreased by 22% with MSVR (P < 0.05 vs. both groups). MSVR uniquely enhanced parietal alpha oscillations during and post-intervention (P = 0.001). MSVR also induced greater immersion and realism than VR (P < 0.001). MSVR significantly enhances endogenous pain inhibition and elevates pain thresholds more effectively than conventional VR or 2D interventions, primarily through rhythmic audiomotor integration modulating parietal alpha-oscillation modulation. These findings suggest MSVR as a scalable digital therapeutic strategy for pain management.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.