AUDITORY CORTICAL ALTERATIONS IN CHRONIC PAIN: MODULATORY EFFECTS OF MUSIC EXPOSURE

Chronic pain is a multidimensional pathological condition associated with cognitive alterations. Persistent pain continuously engages neural resources, potentially impairing attention and sensory processing. While pharmacological treatments (e.g. NSAIDs, opioids) are commonly used, their repeated administration is limited by significant adverse effects. Non-pharmacological interventions, such as music listening, have therefore emerged as promising adjuvant strategies. Here, we investigated whether music exposure modulates pain-related cognitive impairments at the level of auditory cortical processing. A cohort of rats was divided into three groups: 1) no pain, 2) chronic pain, 3) chronic pain with overnight music exposure (Mozart K.205). Chronic pain was induced by injecting Complete Freund’s Adjuvant into the left hind paw. Fourteen days later, animals underwent surgery to record auditory evoked potentials from the right auditory cortex using a surface microelectrode array. Four sound paradigms were delivered to the contralateral ear: a 1 Hz regular click, a many-standards control, and two oddball paradigms with crossed frequencies (10 kHz and 16 kHz). The oddball protocols consisted of repetitive standard stimuli occasionally interrupted by a deviant stimulus, eliciting mismatch negativity (MMN), a neural marker of short-term auditory sensory memory. Our preliminary data show consistent MMN-like responses across all groups, supporting the suitability of this auditory paradigm to assess these responses. Ongoing analyses are evaluating whether chronic pain affects short-term auditory processing and whether music exposure modulates these changes. Our findings could help to elucidate how music-based interventions modulate cortical correlates of cognitive processing in chronic pain, supporting their use as adjuvants to analgesics.