Flores-García Montse, Flores África, Aso Ester, Otero-López Paloma, Ciruela Francisco, Videla Sebastià, Grau-Sánchez Jennifer, Rodríguez-Fornells Antoni, Bonaventura Jordi, Fernández-Dueñas Víctor
Pharmacology Unit, Department of Pathology and Experimental Therapeutics, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Institute of Neurosciences, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Neuropharmacology & Pain Group, Neuroscience Program, IDIBELL-Bellvitge Institute for Biomedical Research, Barcelona, Spain.
Pain Rep. 2024 Dec 9;10(1):e1205. doi: 10.1097/PR9.0000000000001205. eCollection 2025 Feb.
Chronic pain is a debilitating disease that is usually comorbid to anxiety and depression. Current treatment approaches mainly rely on analgesics but often neglect emotional aspects. Nonpharmacological interventions, such as listening to music, have been incorporated into clinics to provide a more comprehensive management of chronic pain. However, the underlying mechanisms of music-mediated pain relief are not fully understood.
Our aim was to evaluate the effects and mechanisms of music exposure in an animal model of chronic pain.
We injected mice with the complete Freund adjuvant (CFA) inflammatory agent into the hind paw and housed them for 14 days with background music, or ambient noise, during their active period (Mozart K.205, overnight). The effect of music exposure on nociception, anxiety-like behaviors, and depression-like behaviors was evaluated through different paradigms, including the hot plate, Von Frey, elevated plus maze, splash, and tail suspension tests. In addition, we conducted fiber photometry experiments to investigate whether music influences dopamine dynamics in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), a crucial region involved in pain processing, anhedonia, and reward.
Our findings indicate that music exposure prevents the decrease in NAcc activity observed in CFA-injected mice, linking with a sex-dependent reduction in allodynia, anxiety-like behaviors, and depression-like behaviors. Accordingly, female mice were more sensitive to music exposure than male mice.
Collectively, our findings provide compelling evidence for the integration of music as a nonpharmacological intervention in chronic pain conditions. Moreover, the observed effect on NAcc suggests its potential as a therapeutic target for addressing chronic pain and its associated symptoms.
慢性疼痛是一种使人衰弱的疾病，通常与焦虑和抑郁并发。目前的治疗方法主要依赖于镇痛药，但往往忽视了情绪方面。非药物干预措施，如听音乐，已被纳入临床，以提供更全面的慢性疼痛管理。然而，音乐介导的疼痛缓解的潜在机制尚未完全了解。
我们的目的是评估在慢性疼痛动物模型中音乐暴露的效果和机制。
我们将完全弗氏佐剂（CFA）炎症剂注射到小鼠后爪，并在它们的活跃期（莫扎特K.205，过夜）让它们在背景音乐或环境噪音中饲养14天。通过不同的范式评估音乐暴露对伤害感受、焦虑样行为和抑郁样行为的影响，包括热板试验、von Frey试验、高架十字迷宫试验、泼溅试验和悬尾试验。此外，我们进行了光纤光度法实验，以研究音乐是否影响伏隔核（NAcc）中的多巴胺动态，伏隔核是参与疼痛处理、快感缺失和奖赏的关键区域。
我们的研究结果表明，音乐暴露可防止在注射CFA的小鼠中观察到的NAcc活性下降，这与痛觉过敏、焦虑样行为和抑郁样行为的性别依赖性降低有关。因此，雌性小鼠比雄性小鼠对音乐暴露更敏感。
总体而言，我们的研究结果为将音乐作为慢性疼痛状况的非药物干预措施提供了有力证据。此外，观察到的对NAcc的影响表明其作为解决慢性疼痛及其相关症状的治疗靶点的潜力。
