Certain Types of Music Could Help You Feel Less Pain某些类型的音乐可以帮助你减轻疼痛

There is no doubt that music can soothe the soul for some， and it turns out that it could also be a temporary soother for physical pain.

Listening to favorite songs could reduce people’s perception of pain， according to a study published in the journal Frontiers in Pain Research. And the most effective pain relievers were found to be sad songs detailing bittersweet and emotional experiences.

The small study invited 63 young adults to bring two of their favorite songs， and the requirement was that they needed to be at least 3 minutes and 20 seconds long. The researchers also had the young adults pick one of seven songs that the team considered relaxing and unfamiliar to the study participants.

Each person underwent 7-minute blocks where they were instructed to stare at a monitor screen while listening to their favorite songs， one of the seven relaxing instrumental songs （each Uuf2RN8zqFckaxcHjtlVZnYau2KPr6Z3nNtfecJ5+vM=of which lasted for 6 minutes and 40 seconds）， or a scrambled version of both songs and the relaxing song chosen. The scrambled music was a jumble of all three songs， cut into fragments and randomly shuffled. All the while， the researchers stuck a hot object—similar to the pain of a boiling hot teacup on your skin—to the participants’ left inner forearms.

众所周知，音乐可以抚慰一些人的心灵。事实证明，它也可以暂时缓解身体的疼痛。

发表在《疼痛研究前沿》杂志上的一项研究表明，听喜欢的歌曲可以减少人们对疼痛的感知。而最有效的止痛药是描述苦乐人生和情感经历的悲伤歌曲。

这项小型研究邀请63名年轻人带来两首他们最喜欢的歌曲，而歌曲的时长至少要3分20秒。研究人员还准备了7首他们认为令人放松但这些年轻人不熟悉的歌曲，让他们从中选择一首。

每人有7分钟的测试时间。在这段时间里，他们被要求边盯着显示器屏幕，边聆听他们最喜欢的两首歌曲，以及7首轻松器乐歌曲中的一首（每首曲子长6分40秒），或者两首歌曲和所选轻松歌曲的混合版本（在混合版本中，3首歌被剪辑成片段并随机打乱）。与此同时，研究人员将一个热的物体（产生类似于滚烫的茶杯碰在皮肤上的疼痛感）贴在参与者的左前臂内侧。

Research found that people were more likely to report feeling less pain when listening to their favorite songs compared with hearing the unfamiliar relaxing song， while the scrambled songs did not reduce pain， which the researchers suggested was evidence of music being more than a distraction from an unpleasant experience.

The researchers found people who listened to bittersweet and moving songs felt less pain than when they listened to songs with calming or cheerful themes. People who listened to bittersweet songs also reported more chills—the thrill and shivers you get from listening to pleasurable music. This sensation was associated with less burning pain they felt in the experiment.

“When people are listening to music they enjoy， by our measurements it can reduce the pain that we’re feeling by 10%，” said Patrick Stroman， a professor of biomedical and molecular sciences at Queen’s University in Kingston， Ontario.

研究发现，与听不熟悉的轻松歌曲相比，人们在听自己喜欢的歌曲时更有可能感到更轻的疼痛，而混合歌曲没有减轻疼痛。研究人员认为这说明音乐起到的作用不仅仅是分散人们对不愉快经历的注意力。

研究人员发现，听苦乐参半和感人歌曲的人比听平静或欢快歌曲的人感到的疼痛要轻。那些听苦乐参半歌曲的人也称身体有战栗感，即在听愉快的音乐时身体会颤抖。他们在实验中感受到较轻的灼痛感与这种感觉有关。

加拿大安大略省金斯顿市女王大学的生物医学和分子科学系教授帕特里克·斯特罗曼说：“根据我们的测评，当人们听自己喜欢的音乐时，感受到的疼痛可以减少10%。”

Word Bank

soothe /suːð/ v. 抚慰

perception /pə'sepʃn/ n. 感知

undergo /'ʌndə'ɡəʊ/ v. 经历，经受

The building underwent repairs a few years ago.

randomly /'rændəmli/ adv. 随机地