Purpose It is generally accepted that massage can provide a lot of benefits to human health, especially for the brain functions. Little is known about the effect of unilateral massage on the brain activities. Nowadays, Swedish massage is a modern massage technique that is popular in both treatment and research fields. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of unilateral Swedish massage on brain activities with electroencephalography (EEG) recording. Design/methodology/approach In total, 18 healthy adult participants (5 men, 13 women) aged between 22 and 36 years were massaged over one side of arm, forearm, hand, neck and face. Then the same procedures were repeated to another side of the body. EEG was recorded before (baseline) and during each massage condition. The absolute power of four common brain waves consisting of δ (0.5-4 Hz), θ (4-8 Hz), α (8-13 Hz), and β activities (13-30 Hz) from the quantitative EEG analysis between baseline and each massage condition were used to compare with the paired t-test. Findings The study found the reduction of δ and θ powers over bilateral frontal, fronto-central, and central areas. The increments of α power over the similar brain areas were also observed. These findings indicated the generalized effect of unilateral Swedish massage for inducing relaxation. Moreover, the significant reduction of β power was also found over right central area when left-arm massage was applied. This finding revealed the initial inhibitory effect of Swedish massage over right somatosensory cortex that received sensory stimulation through massage from left side of the body. Originality/value Unilateral Swedish massage induced the inhibitory effect at the contralateral somatosensory cortex and then produced the generalized effect which is compatible with relaxation.

[Purpose] In the present study, electroencephalography was used to explore neural activity related to electromyography biofeedback training, focusing on pain perception before and after electromyography biofeedback. [Participants and Methods] Twenty-seven participants (female=23; mean age: 28.85 ± 4.99 years) with mild-to-moderate myofascial pain syndrome in the upper trapezius were recruited for this study. All participants underwent electroencephalography recording before, during, and after (0 and 15 min) electromyography biofeedback training. Quantitative electroencephalography analysis was performed to obtain the absolute power of the four main frequency bands. Pain scores before and after electromyography biofeedback were also evaluated by subjective rating. [Results] Electromyography biofeedback increased alpha power and decreased delta power 15 minutes after training, suggestive of relaxation. However, although a tendency for scores to decrease was observed, no significant improvements in pain scores were observed following the intervention. Such results may be due to the short duration of the biofeedback session and the subjective nature of pain assessments. [Conclusion] Despite no obvious changes in pain perception, brief electromyography biofeedback training may induce relaxation in patients with myofascial pain syndrome of the upper trapezius muscle.