Music and pain: Evidence from experiential perspectives

This chapter highlights the experimental evidence supporting the efficacy of music for pain relief and for the cognitive and emotional mechanisms underpinning it. Although it is clear that induced pain is a different physiological and psychological experience to that which occurs through injury or illness, this experimental work is, in unison with clinical studies, providing valuable evidence that can be applied effectively in healthcare. Several interesting areas are highlighted for further investigation, such as the addition of tasks to test effects on attention directly, and the role of arousal, which has been implicated in the findings of various studies but seldom measured systematically.