Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

‘Bunker mentality’ at Columbia lit protest spark that spread nationwide

A mystery illness stole their kids’ personalities. These moms fought for answers.

The greatness — yes, greatness — of the Planet of the Apes

Carolyn Hax: Keep scrolling seven hours per day, or give therapy a try?

Ask Amy: Mother isn’t accepting of her gay son

Ask Amy: What do I say about my former walking buddy who yelled at me?

An unexpected sight to behold: Ted Cruz working bipartisan deals

Narrative of Trump snoozing in court takes hold — much to his annoyance

Manafort will no longer take on Republican convention role

I used to dismiss my mom’s advice. Then I found a note she wrote before she died.  

Photos of his mom at lunch are a balm people didn’t know they needed

Dog hit by car loses leg, is adopted by firefighter who helped her

Eighth-inning decision burns the Nats in a 4-2 loss to the Red Sox

Nats win opener at Fenway behind Patrick Corbin and a lockdown bullpen

Commanders rookie DT Johnny Newton needs a second foot surgery

Bishop vanished. His species can still be saved.

VCU grads walk out during Gov. Youngkin’s speech

Northern lights glow worldwide

5 big travel lessons from an accomplished conservationist

Cruise ship drags dead whale into New York, prompting investigation

The case for eating at Italian gas stations

Kristi Noem’s dog killing is pure Southern gothic

Claire Messud turns her family’s history into a masterpiece

Joseph Epstein, conservative provocateur, tells his life story in full

Tens of thousands in Georgia protest Russian-style ‘foreign agents’ law

Israeli operations in north and south Gaza force displaced to flee again

‘Nothing left’: At least 300 dead as flash floods devastate Afghanistan

The urgent air defense lessons of April 16 

Are smartphones destroying childhood? It’s complicated.

In the campaign against Donald Trump, do the ends justify the means?

Fooled by AI? These firms sell deepfake detection that’s ‘REAL 100%.’ 

Apple apologizes for iPad ad after blowback 

Google’s new ‘Find My’ device network is useful but a stalking risk

Courtroom photo ban adds to hurdles for Trump trial journalists

Israel’s shameful ban on Al Jazeera

Checks, not sex, and other takeaways from Trump’s New York hush money trial

US-POLITICS-BIDEN

Mathieu Roy

After Michelle Yang pulled on a pair of headphones to listen to one of her favorite songs — Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” — she felt a flash of pain on her left forearm.

Yang was participating in a study by researchers at a Montreal university to determine how listening to one’s favorite music alters perception of pain. After participants selected their top songs, researchers placed a thermal simulator on their forearms, which created a sensation similar to touching a hot cup of coffee.

But as Yang listened to Swift’s lyrics during the study this summer, the 23-year-old graduate student said she felt happy and carefree, barely noticing the pain. Yang often listened to “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic8j13piAhQ" target=_blank>Cruel Summer</a>” while grocery shopping during the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/coronavirus/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">coronavirus</a> pandemic. The song provided her with a sense of freedom in an otherwise uncertain period, and those feelings returned during the study.

Yang’s experience has been similar to that of most participants in McGill University’s research. Results published last week in the <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpain.2023.1210572/full" target=_blank>Frontiers journal</a> showed that listening to your favorite tunes can reduce the perception of pain as much as taking an Advil.

Now, in a second phase of the study, researchers are studying brain activity to determine which parts of the mind create that relieved perception.

“There is a little bit of a mystery surrounding music,” Mathieu Roy, one of the study’s lead researchers and a McGill University psychology professor, told The Washington Post. “It’s not clear why we experience such strong emotional experiences when we listen.”

<a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2008-10950-005" target=_blank>Other researchers</a> have found<b> </b>that music can help <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/08/25/music-therapy-reduce-anxiety-strategies/" target=_blank>relieve stress</a> and pain — <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41390-023-02746-4.epdf?sharing_token=8bsMJq4n5e6gJDq63i07edRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0P-vxIWkxAWbUnWj9FN53z98PSE9BR-RJkrti6k6V8GggvPRSyx0awVzIF-7ElSCxIgqw7nQ10WysAQsKEn5QvBj_YmR9vzzrHtAWQVQhr0rPZXrdA6bgK9SrILEJtDCRxnF8Lq5sZiJPun-vwqCWYJZ2mQ8Zgw_w-iaeCr0peTxrFKql0PfRJSNAWT7hhkYi_IeLQOaf7XSysuvlRZ9hYUAbcJa4Z1Ew43spXIqPzkkaRZ2Q5kXlSqd5TtN45iJuOMOL44S57EUfKtToqysWld48NSXwj2oV__3JVR3Oaxuj0Zn8av14Nv9tbkaQkkl5g%3D&tracking_referrer=www.theguardian.com" target=_blank>even in babies</a>. A study published in August 2022 in the <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0271329" target=_blank>PLOS One journal</a> found that acute pain decreased when people had control over which songs they were listening to. In the fall of 2019, McGill University researchers hoped to build on previous findings by studying pain levels in people listening to their favorite music.

Researchers found 63 participants — many of whom were students in the university’s psychology department — and asked them to list two songs: their all-time favorite track and the song they would bring to a desert island. The only requirement was that the song was at least 3 minutes and 20 seconds long.

While participants sat in front of a computer, researchers programmed a thermal simulator — a small block that outputs heat — to between 113 and 122 degrees and moved it to different areas of participants’ left forearm. Then, participants listened to different types of music while using a marker on the computer screen to rate the pain on a scale from zero to 100.

First, participants listened to their favorite songs for nearly seven minutes. Then, participants listened to relaxing tracks from a music therapy app. Participants next heard shuffled versions of their favorite songs and relaxing songs — jumbling the lyrics and switching tracks frequently. Lastly, participants sat in silence for about seven minutes.

The only time participants felt significant relief was while they were listening to their favorite songs — sometimes nearly 10 points fewer on the zero-to-100 scale than while hearing the other songs, Roy said. Participants were surprised to learn that similar temperatures were applied to their arm throughout the experiment, Roy said.

Researchers interviewed participants afterward and found the songs that most reduced pain induced an emotion in the listener — feeling happy, sad, understood or powerful.

A participant who listened to Death Cab for Cutie’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6e0sAMRioo" target=_blank>Good Help (Is So Hard to Find)</a>” told researchers that they “find a lot of connection with the meaning of the song,” according to the study. Another who listened to Andy Grammer’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouEezpuPc3A" target=_blank>Don’t Give Up On Me</a>” told researchers that they cried when they first heard the song and it has a “really big emotional impact” on them, the study said.

One participant said they “want to bounce up and down” and “smile” when they listen to “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY5f85Q6Y6w" target=_blank>The Real</a>” by Busty and the Bass, according to the study. Another said they felt relaxed while listening to Agnes Obel’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjncyiuwwXQ" target=_blank>Riverside</a>,” the study mentioned.

Building on the study that published in the Frontiers journal last week, McGill researchers are now conducting a nearly identical study but with one major change — they’re placing participants in an MRI machine to study brain activity in hopes of finding how dopamine and cortices drive emotions while listening to beloved songs.

Yang, who participated in the MRI study over the summer, said images of happy memories filled her mind while she listened to “Cruel Summer” and other Swift songs.

“You’re able to mask [the pain] a bit better,” Yang said, “because you are thinking about something good.”

University of Maryland, BA in multiplatform journalism

Kyle Melnick is a reporter on The Washington Post's General Assignment desk, where he covers national and international news.

Kyle Melnick

washpost

Listening to favorite songs can reduce pain as much as Advil, study finds

the-washington-post

handout

McGill University music

An illustration of the pain scale with the headline: In pain? Listening to your favorite music can provide relief.

Washington Post illustration; iStock

The Washington Post

In pain? Listening to your favorite music can provide relief.

name

prism://prism.query/site,/national/morning-mix?limit=20

Morning Mix

The Washington Post's Morning Mix blog covers stories from all over the nation and world.

prism://prism.query/arts-music-feed/&limit=20

Music

Music - The Washington Post

Coverage of music from The Washington Post. The latest headlines, breaking news, in-depth coverage and reviews of music.

prism://prism.query/site,/health&limit=20

Health

The Washington Post health section provides coverage and analysis of health, healthcare, nutrition and fitness news.

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/national&limit=20

National

The Washington Post's national news coverage. Get the latest national news, featuring national security, science and the courts. Read breaking national news headlines from across the U.S.