A new open-access scoping review in PAIN Reports maps what researchers have learned so far about how music-based interventions reduce pain. The review is a collaboration among the NIH music research networks, including audioanalgesia.
The team screened 663 records and included 57 studies that tested a mechanism, moderator, or predictor of music’s effect on clinical or experimental pain. Most studies used experimental pain with healthy volunteers, and all but four examined recorded music rather than active music-making.
Across studies, the review found converging evidence for several candidate mechanisms, including positive emotional valence, a sense of cognitive agency, and sensorimotor synchronization. Neuroimaging studies point to effects on early stages of pain processing as well as on how pain is interpreted cognitively and emotionally. Preliminary evidence suggests music may help restore default mode network connectivity involved in self-referential thought.
The authors recommend that future studies use designs that can distinguish between competing mechanistic explanations, test hypothesized mechanisms directly where feasible, and compare people with and without clinical pain. These are the questions the audioanalgesia pilot program is designed to help answer.
Read the article: Bradt J, Hirsh A, Jensen MP, Desbarats E, Burns DS, Dusek JA, et al. A scoping review of music-based pain treatment mechanism research. Pain Reports. 2026;11(4):e1467. doi:10.1097/PR9.0000000000001467