Sad music may make motion sickness worse, according to one new study.
It’s another bad day for those partial to mournful music, with new research finding that – while joyful music could alleviate symptoms of carsickness – sad tunes made people feel sicker than no music at all.
The boffins at Southwest University in Chongqing investigated the effects of four different types of music (joyful, sad, stirring and soft) on the motion sickness experienced by people in a driving simulation.
After asking 40 participants at the University of California, Berkeley, to rate their motion sickness across a variety of different simulated drives, the researchers narrowed down the specific simulated roadtrip which induced the highest amount of motion sickness symptoms.
While the paper, which was published in Frontiers Human Neuroscience, did not describe the features of this ultimate sickness-inducing roadscape, one conjures visions of a bumpy, winding mountain pathway.
In a Machiavellian move, the researchers then selected the 30 participants who had reported moderate levels of past carsickness, hooked them up to an EEG cap and made them retake the simulated drive.
Five participants had no music for the whole drive, five had none and were able stop the simulation when they started to feel carsick and the remaining 20 participants heard either joyful, sad, stirring or soft music.
Joyful and soft music had better alleviating effects on motion sickness, with alleviation rates of 57.3% and 56.7% respectively.
Sad music, though, had a lower alleviation effect than natural recovery.
“This phenomenon may stem from an emotional resonance effect – the subdued melodies of sad music may intensify negative emotional experiences, superimposing them on the discomfort of motion sickness and thus exacerbating subjective discomfort,” the study said.
“Neurologically, sad music may inhibit emotion regulation in the prefrontal-limbic system, making it more difficult for individuals to recover from motion sickness, as has been demonstrated in previous laboratory studies.”
For your next road trip, then, maybe consider banning the Bon Iver and Elliot Smith.
Send your sickness-inducing playlist to Holly@medicalrepublic.com.au.
