Practicing scales for hours might make your neighbors miserable, but scientists say it could rewire how the brain processes pain. A new study found that trained musicians handle discomfort differently, both in their bodies and in their brains.
Pain usually shrinks the brain’s “body map,” the region that directs which muscles move and when. That shrinking makes pain feel worse over time. Non-musicians in the experiment followed this pattern after researchers induced temporary hand pain. Musicians, on the other hand, didn’t. Their maps stayed intact, and the more hours they had trained, the less pain they reported feeling.
“Musicians, even before the pain was induced, already had a more refined hand map in their brains,” the researchers wrote in the study. “After pain induction, their maps did not shrink like those of non-musicians, and the more hours they had practiced, the less pain they felt.”
Musicians Are Literally Wired to Handle Pain Differently, Study Suggests
To test the theory, researchers gave participants safe doses of nerve growth factor, a protein that creates soreness without causing damage. Volunteers lived with the ache for several days while scientists tracked how their brains adapted using transcranial magnetic stimulation. For non-musicians, the discomfort quickly chipped away at motor control. Musicians resisted those changes.
The findings add to decades of evidence that music alters the brain, influencing memory, coordination, and much more. Learning an instrument has been linked to stronger language skills, sharper motor skills, and even protection against cognitive decline as people age. Now, it may also help explain why some individuals tolerate long-term pain better than others, suggesting that years of disciplined practice build neurological defenses most people never develop.
This was a small study of 40 people, so no one’s prescribing piano lessons as a cure for chronic pain yet. But the results suggest training and repetition can build resilience where medication often falls short. The team is continuing to study whether musical training protects attention and cognition under chronic pain conditions, and whether similar effects appear in other disciplines that demand constant repetition, like dance or athletics.
Anyone who has watched a violinist rip through a concerto with tendons screaming might not be surprised. Pain is part of the practice, but now it looks like practice might push back on pain too—and maybe give us new ways of thinking about treatment.
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