Our mission is to form a transdisciplinary group of clinicians, musicians, researchers, and people with lived experience to identify and investigate the mechanisms that explain how music-based interventions improve pain- related outcomes.
Our mission is to form a transdisciplinary group of clinicians, musicians, researchers, and people with lived experience to identify and investigate the mechanisms that explain how music-based interventions improve pain- related outcomes.
AudioAnalgesiA is a collaborative research network funded by the National Center for Complementary & Integrative Health of the National Institutes of Health (NCCIH) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) under Award Number U24AT012602.
The Core Investigative Team is comprised of experts in music therapy, pain, psychology, biomedical engineering, music, medicine, social work, integrative therapies, and molecular toxicology from Indiana University, Purdue University, the University of Utah, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Maryland.
The overarching goal is to cultivate a thriving network of experts committed to improving understanding of music-based interventions in pain research.
About Us
AudioAnalgesiA is a research network comprised of a core investigative team (CIT) of scientists and clinicians whose collective expertise spans music therapy, pain, neuroscience, social work, psychology, engineering, and medicine; additionally, expert scientists from professional and scientific associations and academic consortiums will be invited to join the network.
Our mission is to form a transdisciplinary group of clinicians, musicians, researchers, and people with lived experience to identify and investigate the mechanisms that explain how music-based interventions improve pain-related outcomes.
Research network activities include webinars, writing groups, and annual workshops to support dissemination and progress toward the following specific aims:
1. Address major gaps in understanding of biopsychosocial mechanisms, including biomarkers, of MBIs in chronic pain;
2. Explore novel technologies and methods to enhance the objective, unobtrusive measurement of pain within the context of music experiences; and
3. Implement a pilot program to fund pilot intervention studies specifically focusing on the mechanisms and technologies to advance music-based pain research.
At the completion of the proposed activities, our expected outcomes are:
1. a research framework that bridges the gaps between the basic, applied, and clinical trials in MBI research;
2. novel technologies and methodologies to examine the mechanisms of MBIs and quantify their effects on chronic pain conditions; and
3. preliminary data from funded pilot projects to support new and senior investigators in securing large-scale funding for definitive research on MBIs and pain.
These outcomes will significantly advance our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the potential effects of MBIs on pain and provide guidance regarding best practices for objective measurement in MBI and pain research.
Core Investigative Team
Principal Investigator
Dean of Communication & Fine Arts
The University of Memphis
Email | Website
Debra Burns specializes in music-based intervention research using mixed methodologies across the cancer treatment continuum from disease-directed treatment, survivorship and end of life. She has collaborated and consulted on several studies funded by the National Institutes of Health specializing in research methodology, determining the essential components of music interventions, designing appropriate control conditions and monitoring treatment fidelity. She has expertise in developing and working in cross disciplinary research teams, mentoring graduate students, and junior faculty. Her research focuses on MBI research in cancer-related symptom burden.
Psychology
Indiana University Indianapolis
Email | Website
Adam Hirsh, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and Professor at Indiana University Indianapolis. His lab examines pain across the developmental spectrum, with a focus on how individual-level factors interact with interpersonal and socio-contextual factors to influence the experience of and judgments about pain. Dr. Hirsh conducts research with providers, patients (and their families), and healthy individuals. He uses diverse research methods, including computer-simulated virtual human technology, laboratory-based quantitative sensory testing, qualitative methods, and clinical data capture. Dr. Hirsh is actively involved in mentoring doctoral and postdoctoral trainees.
Biomedical Engineering
Purdue University Indianapolis
Email | Website
Ken Yoshida, PhD, is a biomedical engineer with experience in basic and translational research exploring neural interface techniques to address phantom limb pain. His models have the potential to become tools for neuroscience and novel techniques for objectively measuring pain. His Bioelectronics Lab works to engineer bioelectric phenomenon to interact with the body’s communication systems and translate neuroscience to therapies. His labs use disruptive technologies, basic science, biointegration & biocompatibility, and biophysics & modeling. Dr. Yoshida is involved in mentoring graduate and postdoctoral students.
Pain & Translational Symptom Science
University of Maryland
Email | Website
Luana Colloca, MD, PhD, MS, is an MPower Distinguished professor and the Director of the Placebo Beyond Opinions Center. As an NIH-funded principal investigator, Dr. Colloca has established an independent program of research on human pain modulation from both a mechanistic and translational viewpoint. Her team explores the role of neurobehavioral and genetic influences on a newly described model namely expectancy-induced analgesia, in patients suffering from chronic pain.
Psychiatry
University of Utah
Email | Website
Becky Kinkead, PhD, is a basic scientist (molecular toxicologist) who explores the role of integrative therapies and chronic inflammation in anxiety, depression, and cancer-related fatigue. She is a co-Investigator on the administrative core of two P50s, facilitating communication across projects, coordinating award administration. She specialized in developing standardized, controlled protocols to assist in replicability and treatment fidelity. She has also provided multiple workshops and consultations on grantsmanship.
Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine
Vanderbilt University
Email | Website
Joseph Schlesinger, MD, is a Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Division of Critical Care Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and Adjunct Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. As an anesthesiologist and musician interested in the role of music in health outcomes for ICU patients, his research interests include multisensory integration, human factors, aural perception, and temporal precision.
Hunstman Cancer Hospital
University of Utah
Email | Website
Shelley White, PhD, LCSW, manages the Wellness & Integrative Health Center at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. She is an expert in growing innovative collaborations within a clinical medical practice setting to advance integrative health interventions and create research networks. She possesses more than 30 years of experience in strategic planning and program development. Her passion is implementing and investigating low-cost, non-invasive interventions such as music to reduce biopsychosocial disease.
College of Social Work
University of Utah
Email | Website
Eric Garland, PhD, LCSW, is a social worker who specializes in psychophysiology, chronic pain treatment, and addiction science. He is a member of the HEAL Multidisciplinary work group comprised of national experts in pain and addiction. Dr. Garland has developed his mindfulness intervention (MORE) from basic and applied research, elucidating its mechanisms as a treatment for opioid misuse, opioid use disorder and chronic pain.
Research
The AudioAnalgesiA Research Network is generating a research process and conceptual framework to guide the development of pilot projects.
The network plans to publish two papers in the first year of funding.
The first publication will focus on developing a conceptual framework linking psychosocial processes and pain biomarkers of music’s influence on the pain experience.
The second publication centers on the development and testing of novel technologies and methods to measure the response more objectively to MBIs in chronic pain conditions.
AudioAnalgesiA will award small-scale pilot project funding focused on mechanisms and innovative measurement involving integrative models to address pain through music. The number of pilot studies funded annually will depend upon the funds requested and available. Pilot funding opportunities will begin in late 2024 and early 2025.
As pilot studies are funded, project summaries and clinicaltrial.gov (if appropriate) information/URL links will be included here.
As the Core Investigative Team convenes throughout Year 1 of the project, we will review the NIH Reporter and clinicaltrials.gov to find studies related to the aims of the network. Datasets, papers, and related events will be disseminated here.
AudioAnalgesiA
Music-Based Interventions and Pain
This project establishes a collaborative network of scientists and clinicians from various disciplines—music therapy, psychology, biomedical engineering, medicine, integrative therapies, molecular toxicology—to address major gaps in our understanding of music-based interventions (MBIs) in chronic pain. By bridging gaps in basic, applied, and clinical research, the project aims to optimize MBI research and accelerate its programs.
The efforts of this Research Network will result in new collaborations, new understandings of the mechanisms of MBIs, and new innovative technologies to measure pain outcomes. Additionally, we will carry out a pilot study program to address important gaps in knowledge related to psychosocial, behavioral, and/or neurophysiological factors related to MBIs’ influence on pain.
Interested in receiving updates or joining our research network? Please let us know who you are!
This project is made possible by Grant Number U24AT012602 from National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NCCIH, NEA, or the National Institutes of Health.