Science: listening to music can really relieve pain. Chinese scientists reveal the neural mechanism behind it

Fish and sheep From the Aofei temple
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Music really relieves pain , And the latest scientific evidence has been published Science.

What you may not think of is , It has nothing to do with the music , It depends on The sound is loud .

In this study , Experiments show that , Shallow singing close to whispering can relieve pain , But the same song , Raise the decibel to release , It's no use .

The research comes from China University of science and Technology 、 Anhui Medical University and the National Institutes of health , Led by Chinese scientists .

Let's see what's going on .

The analgesic effect depends on the sound signal-to-noise ratio

In the experiment , The researchers first caused inflammation in the hind paws of mice , Then play different types to the mice 、 Sounds of different volume , use Von Frey test Animal behavior tests to assess their sensitivity to pain in different states .

The types of audio played to mice include ： Classical music 、 Unpleasant discordant music , And white noise .

result , Mice really can't appreciate human music , Whether it's a harmonious music or a messy note , It sounds no different to mice .

Bridge bean sack , That's not to say , Music does not have the effect of analgesia .

It's just , The key to the effect is not whether it is pleasant , And lies in Decibel .

More precisely , It's music and background noise Signal-to-noise ratio .

The researchers found that , When the mouse hears higher than the background noise 5 Decibel sound , No matter how this sound sounds to humans , Can improve the pain threshold of mice .

in other words , At sound intensity close to whisper , These kinds of sounds can relieve the pain of mice .

△ Ambient noise is 45 Decibel

And when the sound is turned higher than the background noise 10 Decibel time , The analgesic effect disappears .

besides , The researchers also found that , After listening continuously 3 God “ analgesia ” After music （ Every day 20 minute ）, The analgesic effect can continue to maintain at least 2 God .

The underlying neural mechanism

According to one of the corresponding authors of this study Yuanyuan Liu Introduce , before , Human brain imaging studies have shown , Some areas of the brain are related to the analgesic effect of music . But what is the neural mechanism behind it , It has not been cracked yet .

therefore , The researchers decided to go further , Solve the mystery through animal experiments .

Use virus tracing 、 In vivo multi electrode recording and neuronal calcium imaging recording , The researchers identified an auditory cortex that receives and processes sound information , Neural pathways to thalamus .

Thalamus is a transit station connecting various senses of the whole body and cerebral cortex .

Researchers tried to artificially suppress this pathway , Without sound , Successfully simulated the pain relief effect of low-intensity sound .

conversely , Activate this pathway , The sensitivity of mice to pain was restored .

It should be noted that , at present , Researchers are not sure whether the human brain has a similar mechanism , just as Liu said ：

We don't know whether human music has meaning for rodents , But for mankind itself , The emotional components are obviously very different .

For all that ,Science Still think , The results of this study show that , The analgesic effect of sound has a solid foundation .“ Sound therapy ” It may further reduce the use of analgesic drugs .

Reference link ：
[1]https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn4663
[2]https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/957898