The four NIH-funded music research networks, including audioanalgesia, have published the Music-Based Intervention (MBI) Taxonomy in Frontiers in Psychology.
Research on music and health spans many disciplines, and each tends to describe interventions in its own terms. A multidisciplinary working group from the four U24 networks built a shared framework so that studies can be described, compared, and replicated with the same vocabulary.
The group drafted the taxonomy through an expert consensus process, then tested and refined it against a systematic review of 200 studies: 100 clinical music-based intervention studies and 100 laboratory-based music studies. The result organizes music-based interventions into seven core constructs:
- Music Features
- Person-Specific Music Factors
- Engagement Mode
- Music Delivery Factors
- Social and Environmental Contexts
- Music Selection
- Additional Non-Music Components
For each construct, the taxonomy specifies components, subcomponents, recommended terms, and definitions. It is designed to help investigators plan mechanistic studies and to make it easier to synthesize findings across research groups.
Read the article: Robb SL, Harman E, Burns DS, Dusek JA, Johnson JK, Rodgers-Melnick SN, et al. A taxonomic framework of music-based intervention components to guide research: recommendations from the NIH U24 music research networks. Frontiers in Psychology. 2026;17:1876240. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1876240