Abstract
Objectives: When physical exercise is systematically coupled to music production, exercisers experience improvements in mood, reductions in perceived effort, and enhanced muscular efficiency. The physiology underlying these positive effects remains unknown. Here we approached the investigation of how such musical agency may stimulate the release of endogenous opioids indirectly with a pain threshold paradigm.Design: In a cross-over design we tested the opioid-hypothesis with an indirect measure, comparing the pain tolerance of 22 participants following exercise with or without musical agency.Method: Physical exercise was coupled to music by integrating weight-training machines with sensors that control music-synthesis in real time. Pain tolerance was measured as withdrawal time in a cold pressor test.Results: On average, participants tolerated cold pain for ~5 s longer following exercise sessions with musical agency. Musical agency explained 25% of the variance in cold pressor test withdrawal times after factoring out individual differences in general pain sensitivity.Conclusions: This result demonstrates a substantial pain reducing effect of musical agency in combination with physical exercise, probably due to stimulation of endogenous opioid mechanisms. This has implications for exercise endurance, both in sports and a multitude of rehabilitative therapies in which physical exercise is effective but painful.
Highlights
Musical AgencyControl over musical sound is experienced by singers and musicians on a regular basis during music performance
Three of the 22 participants were excluded from the analysis because they either did not show up for the second session, the cooling-system for the cold pressor task failed, or they completed the cold pressor test without reporting pain
Comparison of individual pain tolerance scores with the results of the Pain Sensitivity Questionnaire (PSQ) showed a significant correlation with the PSQ-minor subscale scores (r = −0.505, p = 0.027)
Summary
Musical AgencyControl over musical sound (musical agency) is experienced by singers and musicians on a regular basis during music performance. In a paradigm using weight training machines with musical feedback, muscular effort can be closely coupled to musical sound, giving any participant the opportunity to experience a possibility for musical expression and the broad range of positive psychological and physiological effects that follow (Fritz et al, 2013a,b, 2015). This approach, dubbed Jymmin (gym + jammin), combines exercise machines designed for weight training with sensors to control music production software in real time. The positive effects of this intervention on mood (as measured on mood subscale of the Multidimensional Mood Questionnaire Steyer et al, 1997) may result from a release of endogenous opioids in the central nervous system
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