Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 8, 2025

Driving Under the Influence: How Music Listening Affects Driving Behaviors
Published on: March 27, 2019
Preferred musical attribute dimensions underlie individual differences in music-induced analgesia
Krzysztof Basiński1, Agata Zdun-Ryżewska2, David M Greenberg3,4
1Department of Quality of Life Research, Medical University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland. k.basinski@gumed.edu.pl.
Abstract:
Music-induced analgesia (MIA) is a phenomenon that describes a situation in which listening to music influences pain perception. The heterogeneity of music used in MIA studies leads to a problem of a specific effect for an unspecified stimulus. To address this, we use a previously established model of musical preferences that categorizes the multidimensional sonic space of music into three basic dimensions: arousal, valence and depth. Participants entered an experimental pain stimulation while listening to compilations of short musical excerpts characteristic of each of the three attribute dimensions. The results showed an effect on the part of music attribute preferences on average pain, maximal pain, and pain tolerance after controlling for musical attributes and order effects. This suggests that individual preferences for music attributes play a significant role in MIA and that, in clinical contexts, music should not be chosen arbitrarily but according to individual preferences.
More Related Videos
07:28Psychophysically-anchored, Robust Thresholding in Studying Pain-related Lateralization of Oscillatory Prestimulus Activity
Published on: January 21, 2017
11:15fMRI Mapping of Brain Activity Associated with the Vocal Production of Consonant and Dissonant Intervals
Published on: May 23, 2017
Related Concept Videos
Analgesia and Pain Management
Perception of Sound Waves
The pitch of a sound depends on the frequency and the pressure amplitude of the source. Two sounds of the same...
Local Anesthetics: Differential Sensitivity of Nerve Fibers
Sound Intensity Level
The human ear can perceive an extensive range of sound intensity, necessitating the use of the logarithmic scale to define a physical quantity—the intensity level. It is a ratio of two intensities and...
Auditory Perception
Nociception