Tehran – A new study has found that neuroscientists at the University of Vienna can significantly alleviate the intensity of physical pain by looking at natural scenes, either realistic or virtual.
The study was conducted in collaboration with international teams and found that pain can be relieved by changing the way the brain reacts to pain when viewed from nature.
“Pain treatment is a complex phenomenon,” explains Max Steininger, a research lead and doctoral student at the University of Vienna. Steininger and his colleagues investigated how natural exposure affects pain to better understand this and identify treatment options. Participants suffering from pain showed three types of videos: natural scenes, indoor scenes and urban scenes, according to a report published by Scitechdaily.
“Pain is like a puzzle, and consists of various parts that are handled differently in the brain. Some of the puzzles are related to emotional responses to pain. Other pieces correspond to physical signals underlying the painful experience, such as position and intensity within the body.
Unlike placebos that usually change emotional responses to pain, when you look at nature, your brain has changed the way in which raw, raw sensory signals of pain are processed early. Therefore, this effect appears to be unaffected by participants’ expectations, and is more due to the underlying changes in pain signal,” explains Steininger.
Claus Lamm, the group’s research director, added: However, the fundamental reason for this has remained unclear up until now. Our research suggests that the brain responds less to both the body source and intensity of pain. ”
This simple and accessible finding contributes to the development of natural-based treatments as an effective supplemental approach to managing pain.
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