We collaborated with musician Anatole and scientist Dr Claire Howlin to develop All of Us, a track scientifically crafted to help us better understand if music can affect pain. Listen to our All of Us track on our Tune Out Pain playlist below.
We know pain can get in your way, so we’re always looking at innovative ways to better understand the science of pain. For decades, our research has helped millions, so we’ll keep going. As part of our work we’ve partnered with a scientist and a musician to develop a study to better understand how music can affect pain.
Dr Claire Howlin
Dr Howlin is a lecturer at the University of Dublin and an award-winning musicologist. Throughout her career, she’s published numerous papers on how the brain reacts to music while encountering pain.
Using her own research and other scientists’ studies, Dr Howlin worked with Anatole to create a musical track designed to help us with our study.
Creating a music track to test its effect on people’s pain tolerance was a special challenge for me
Anatole
Anatole (aka Jonathan Baker) is an Australian conservatory-trained trumpeter and multi-instrumentalist who pushes the boundaries of electronic music with his distinctive signature sound of orchestral techniques combined with beat-driven production. Anatole applied his knowledge of blending layers of acoustic instruments, beats and ambient vocals to create the Tune Out Pain track with Dr Claire Howlin.
For me, this was a unique experience to produce a track that is driven by science. It’s almost like creating a new language.
Find out the results - explore the science with Dr Claire Howlin and get into the music with Anatole.
In total, 286 participants took part of the entire study, with 146 being assigned to the main track unchanged and 140 to a variation of the track. The tracks were tested among participants currently experiencing acute pains such as back pain, headache or period pain amongst others. The participants were given different versions and cuts of All of Us to listen to at home and a questionnaire to record how the music made them feel during a pain event. The study found that both versions of ‘All of Us’ track reduced feelings of pain intensity and unpleasantness in a statistically significant way. The tracks were different in very slight ways, but above, you can listen to the main one on our playlist.
