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Brain network functional connectivity changes induced by music-induced analgesia in fibromyalgia patients
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  • Published: 24 March 2026

Brain network functional connectivity changes induced by music-induced analgesia in fibromyalgia patients

  • Mengting Pan1,9 na1,
  • Jiancheng Hou3,4 na1,
  • Qingqing Yang5 na1,
  • Yukun Chen1,2,
  • Jue Deng6,
  • Maoping Zheng1,8,
  • Changan Sun7 &
  • …
  • Ying Liu1,8 

Scientific Reports , Article number:  (2026) Cite this article

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  • Neurology
  • Neuroscience

Abstract

Music can liberate positive power of pain management in fibromyalgia (FM) patients through multiple neural modulation. However, traditional brain research preferred to investigate the neural characteristics of music-induced analgesia (MIA) based on the seed points of functional activation, which limits the understanding of the connection states of the whole-brain functional synchronization network involved in FM’s music listening. The current study aimed to investigate the whole-brain network functional connectivity (FC) differences of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI) before and after music listening in FM patients using a data-driven analysis approach. Using a publicly available dataset, the RS-fMRI data from 20 FM patients were analyzed. A network-based FC approach was applied to compare intra- and inter-network FC changes across the visual network (VN), somatosensory network (SMN), ventral attention network (VAN), default mode network (DMN), and subcortical network (SC). After music listening, FM patients exhibited significant reduction in evaluation of pain intensity (PI), and also exhibited changed intra-network FC within the VAN and VN; changed inter-network FC between the VAN and DMN, between the VN and SMN or DMN, between the SMN and DMN, and between the VN and SMN or DMN, respectively. What’s more, correlations were found between post–pre changes in subjective pain ratings and post–pre changes in network FC. Positive correlations were found between PI’s reduction and the increase of inter-network FC between the right fusiform (VN) and left middle insula (SMN), and also found between the reduction of pain unpleasantness (PU) and the increase of inter-network FC between the left middle insula (SMN) and left posterior occipital cortex (DMN). The network FC results here provided new evidence to the inter/intra-networks in VN, SMN, VAN, DMN, and subcortical network, explaining that FM patients may generate cognitive processing from bottom to top and emotion regulation from top to down to realize their MIA.

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Data availability

The participants’ information, and their RS-fMRI and anatomical T1 dataset, were obtained from a public dataset via OpenNeuro with accession number ds001928 (https://openneuro.org/datasets/ds001928/versions/1.1.0).

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Funding

Sponsorship for this study and the Rapid Service Fee were funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 32200823); the Chongqing Graduate Education Reform Fund (No. YJG233025); the Chongqing Educational Science Planning Project (No. K23ZG2020062); the Chongqing Undergraduate Education Reform, Development, and Practice of Music Students (No. 243045); the Basic Research Project of Central University of China (No. SWU2209508); and the Fujian Normal University Research Start-Up Funding (Y0720304K05).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Mengting Pan, Jiancheng Hou and Qingqing Yang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Academy of Music, Southwest University, Chongqing, China

    Mengting Pan, Yukun Chen, Maoping Zheng & Ying Liu

  2. Chongqing, China

    Yukun Chen

  3. Research Center for Cross-Straits Cultural Development, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, Fujian, China

    Jiancheng Hou

  4. Department of Radiology, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    Jiancheng Hou

  5. School of Basic Medicine, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China

    Qingqing Yang

  6. Cognitive Neuroscience and Abnormal Psychology Laboratory, Fujian Police College, Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, China

    Jue Deng

  7. School of Education and Public Administration, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China

    Changan Sun

  8. Academy of Music, Mental Health Research Institute of Chinese Music, Southwest University, No 2, Tiansheng Road, Beibei District, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Maoping Zheng & Ying Liu

  9. Bachuan Middle School, Chongqing, China

    Mengting Pan

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Contributions

Conceptialization and Investigation: Mengting Pan, Jiancheng Hou, Ying Liu. Data curation: Jiancheng Hou, Ying Liu. Formal analysis: Mengting Pan, Jiancheng Hou. Funding acquisition: Jiancheng Hou, Maoping Zheng, Ying Liu. Methodology: Jiancheng Hou, Qingqing Yang, Jue Deng, Ying Liu. Software: Qingqing Yang, Yukun Chen, Changan Sun. Visualization: Mengting Pan, Jiancheng Hou, Maoping Zheng, Ying Liu. Writing-original draft: Mengting Pan, Jiancheng Hou, Ying Liu. Writing-review & editing: Qingqing Yang, Yukun Chen, Maoping Zheng, Changan Sun, Ying Liu.

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Correspondence to Ying Liu.

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Pan, M., Hou, J., Yang, Q. et al. Brain network functional connectivity changes induced by music-induced analgesia in fibromyalgia patients. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-45376-6

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  • Received: 01 August 2025

  • Accepted: 18 March 2026

  • Published: 24 March 2026

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-45376-6

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Keywords

  • Fibromyalgia
  • Music-induced analgesia
  • Resting-state fMRI
  • Network functional connectivity
  • Data-driven
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