2025-12-26 22:26:42
Nurse Rod Salaysay works with all kinds of instruments in the hospital: a thermometer, a stethoscope and sometimes his guitar and ukulele.
护士罗德萨莱萨伊在医院里使用各种工具：温度计、听诊器，有时还有他的吉他和尤克里里。
In the recovery unit of UC San Diego Health, Salaysay helps patients manage pain after surgery. Along with medications, he offers tunes on request and sometimes sings. His repertoire ranges from folk songs in English and Spanish to Minuet in G Major and movie favorites like “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
在 UC San Diego Health 的康复室里，Salaysay 帮助患者管理术后疼痛。除了药物，他还会应要求播放音乐，有时还会唱歌。他的曲目范围从英语和西班牙语的民谣到 G 大调小步舞曲，以及电影《绿野仙踪》中的《彩虹之上》等热门歌曲。
Patients often smile or nod along. Salaysay even sees changes in their vital signs like lower heart rate and blood pressure, and some may request fewer painkillers.
患者通常会微笑或点头表示赞同。Salaysay 甚至观察到他们的生命体征发生变化，如心率降低和血压下降，有些人甚至要求减少止痛药的需求。
“There’s often a cycle of worry, pain, anxiety in a hospital,” he said, “but you can help break that cycle with music.”
他说：“医院里往往存在担忧、疼痛、焦虑的循环，但你可以用音乐来帮助打破这个循环。”
Salaysay is a one-man band, but he’s not alone. Over the past two decades, live performances and recorded music have flowed into hospitals and doctors’ offices as research grows on how songs can help ease pain.
萨莱萨伊是一个独奏乐队，但他并不孤单。在过去的二十年里，随着对歌曲如何帮助缓解疼痛的研究不断深入，现场演出和录音音乐不断流入医院和诊所，Scientists explore how music affects pain perception
科学家们探索音乐如何影响疼痛感知
The healing power of song may sound intuitive given music’s deep roots in human culture. But the science of whether and how music dulls acute and chronic pain ― technically called music-induced analgesia ― is just catching up.
歌曲的治愈力量或许听起来很直观，鉴于音乐在人类文化中的深厚根基。但关于音乐是否能减轻急性或慢性疼痛――技术上称为音乐诱导镇痛――的科学研究才刚刚起步。
No one suggests that a catchy song can fully eliminate serious pain. But several recent studies, including in the journals Pain and Scientific Reports, have suggested that listening to music can either reduce the perception of pain or enhance a person’s ability to tolerate it.
没有人建议一首抓耳的歌曲能完全消除严重疼痛。但包括《疼痛》和《科学报告》等期刊在内的一些近期研究表明，听音乐可以减少疼痛感知，或增强个人对疼痛的耐受能力。
What seems to matter most is that patients ― or their families ― choose the music selections themselves and listen intently, not just as background noise.
似乎最重要的是患者――或他们的家人――亲自选择音乐曲目，并专注聆听，而不仅仅是作为背景噪音。
How music can affect pain levels
音乐如何影响疼痛水平
“Pain is a really complex experience,” said Adam Hanley, a psychologist at Florida State University. “It’s created by a physical sensation, and by our thoughts about that sensation and emotional reaction to it.”
“疼痛是一种非常复杂的体验，”佛罗里达州立大学心理学家亚当汉利说。“它是由身体感觉和我们对这种感觉的思考以及对此的情绪反应共同创造的。”
Two people with the same condition or injury may feel vastly different levels of acute or chronic pain. Or the same person might experience pain differently from one day to the next.
患有相同疾病或受伤的两个人可能会感受到截然不同的急性或慢性疼痛程度。或者同一个人在不同日子可能会以不同的方式体验疼痛。
Acute pain is felt when pain receptors in a specific part of the body ― like a hand touching a hot stove ― send signals to the brain, which processes the short-term pain. Chronic pain usually involves long-term structural or other changes to the brain, which heighten overall sensitivity to pain signals. Researchers are still investigating how this occurs.
当身体特定部位（例如手触摸热炉子）的疼痛受体向大脑发送信号时，人们会感受到急性疼痛，大脑处理这种短期疼痛。慢性疼痛通常涉及大脑的长期结构或其他变化，这会提高对疼痛信号的总体敏感性。研究人员仍在调查这一过程是如何发生的。
“Pain is interpreted and translated by the brain,” which may ratchet the signal up or down, said Dr. Gilbert Chandler, a specialist in chronic spinal pain at the Tallahassee Orthopedic Clinic.
“大脑对疼痛进行解释和转换，”塔拉哈西骨科诊所的慢性脊柱疼痛专家吉尔伯特钱德勒博士说，这可能会增强或减弱信号。
Researchers know music can draw attention away from pain, lessening the sensation. But studies also suggest that listening to preferred music helps dull pain more than listening to podcasts.
研究人员知道音乐可以转移注意力，减轻疼痛感。但研究表明，听自己喜欢的音乐比听播客更能缓解疼痛。
“Music is a distractor. It draws your focus away from the pain. But it’s doing more than that,” said Caroline Palmer, a psychologist at McGill University who studies music and pain.
“音乐是一种分散注意力的方式。它将你的注意力从疼痛中转移开。但它做的不仅仅是这些，”麦吉尔大学研究音乐与疼痛的心理学家卡罗琳帕尔默说。
Scientists are still tracing the various neural pathways at work, said Palmer.
帕尔默说，科学家们仍在追踪起作用的多种神经通路。
“We know that almost all of the brain becomes active when we engage in music,” said Kate Richards Geller, a registered music therapist in Los Angeles. “That changes the perception and experience of pain ― and the isolation and anxiety of pain.”
“我们知道，当我们参与音乐时，几乎整个大脑都会变得活跃，”洛杉矶的注册音乐治疗师凯特理查兹盖勒说。“这改变了疼痛的感知和体验――以及疼痛带来的孤独感和焦虑。”
Music genres and active listening
音乐流派与主动聆听
The idea of using recorded music to lessen pain associated with dental surgery began in the late 19th century before local anesthetics were available. Today researchers are studying what conditions make music most effective.
利用录制音乐减轻与牙科手术相关的疼痛的想法始于 19 世纪末，当时还没有局部麻醉剂。如今，研究人员正在研究在何种条件下音乐最为有效。
Researchers at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands conducted a study on 548 participants to see how listening to five genres of music ― classical, rock, pop, urban and electronic ― extended their ability to withstand acute pain, as measured by exposure to very cold temperatures.
荷兰鹿特丹埃拉斯姆斯大学的 researchers 对 548 名参与者进行了一项研究，以观察聆听五种音乐流派――古典、摇滚、流行、城市和电子――如何延长他们忍受急性疼痛的能力，疼痛程度通过暴露在极低温度下进行测量。
All music helped, but there was no single winning genre.
所有音乐都有帮助，但没有单一的获胜流派。
“The more people listened to a favorite genre, the more they could endure pain,” said co-author Dr. Emy van der Valk Bouman. “A lot of people thought that classical music would help them more. Actually, we are finding more evidence that what’s best is just the music you like.”
“人们越常听自己喜欢的音乐类型，就能忍受越多的疼痛，”合著者 Emy van der Valk Bouman 博士说。“很多人认为古典音乐能帮他们更多。实际上，我们正发现越来越多的证据表明，最好的就是你自己喜欢的音乐。”
The exact reasons are still unclear, but it may be because familiar songs activate more memories and emotions, she said.
确切的原因尚不清楚，但她表示，这可能是因为熟悉的歌曲能唤起更多记忆和情感。
The simple act of choosing is itself powerful, said Claire Howlin, director of the Music and Health Psychology Lab at Trinity College Dublin, who co-authored a study that suggested allowing patients to select songs improved their pain tolerance.
都柏林圣三一学院音乐与健康心理学实验室主任克莱尔豪林说，选择这一简单行为本身就很有力量，她合著了一项研究表明，允许患者选择歌曲可以提高他们的耐痛能力。
“It’s one thing that people can have control over if they have a chronic condition ― it gives them agency,” she said.
“对于患有慢性病的人来说，这是他们能够掌控的一件事――这给了他们自主权，”她说。
Active, focused listening also seems to matter.
专注的积极聆听似乎也很重要。
Hanley, the Florida State psychologist, co-authored a preliminary study suggesting daily attentive listening might reduce chronic pain.
佛罗里达州立大学的心理学家汉利共同撰写了一项初步研究，表明每天的专注聆听可能有助于减轻慢性疼痛。
“Music has a way of lighting up different parts of the brain,” he said, “so you’re giving people this positive emotional bump that takes their mind away from the pain.”
“音乐有一种点亮大脑不同区域的方式，”他说，“因此你正在给人们提供这种积极情绪的推动，让他们将注意力从疼痛中移开。”
It’s a simple prescription with no side effects, some doctors now say.
现在一些医生表示，这是一种简单且无副作用的处方。
Cecily Gardner, a jazz singer in Culver City, California, said she used music to help get through a serious illness and has sung to friends battling pain.
加利福尼亚州库尔弗市的一位爵士歌手塞西莉加德纳表示，她曾用音乐帮助自己度过一场重病，并且为正在与疼痛作斗争的朋友唱歌。
“Music reduces stress, fosters community,” she said, “and just transports you to a better place.”
“音乐可以减轻压力，促进社区感，”她说，“它只是把你带到一个更好的地方。”
