London:
The next time you get a jab, do not look away, for a new study has found that looking at your
body -- in this case the hand -- during a painful event could actually reduce the pain experienced.
A team from University College London and University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy, has carried out the study and found that watching a painful procedure can make it hurt less, the latest edition of the 'Psychological Science' journal reported.
Flavia Mancini, the first author of the study, said, "The image that the brain forms of our own body has a strong effect on the experienced level of pain. Moreover, the way the body is represented influences the level of pain experienced."
In the study involving 18 volunteers, researchers applied a heat probe to each participant's hand, gradually increasing the temperature. As soon as this began to feel painful, the probe was removed and temperature was recorded.
Patrick Haggard of UCL, the study's co-author, said, "This gives us a measure of the pain threshold, and it is a safe and reliable way of testing when the brain pathways that underline pain become active."
The team then used a set of mirrors to manipulate what the volunteers saw. The researchers found that volunteers could tolerate on an average 3C more heat when they were looking at their hand in the mirror, compared with when their hand was obscured by a block of wood.
Prof Haggard said, "You always advise children not to look when they are having an injection or a blood sample taken, but we have found that looking at the body is analgesic -- just looking at the body reduces pain levels.
"So my advice would be to look at your arm, but try to avoid seeing the needle -- if that's possible."
In another experiment, the researchers used convex mirrors to enlarge the appearance of the participant's hand.
They found that doing so meant the volunteers were able to tolerate higher temperatures.
Conversely, when the team made the volunteers' hands look smaller, their pain threshold decreased. The researchers said the fact that pain levels were directly proportional to the size the body was viewed at was helping them to better understand the neurological basis of pain.
Prof Haggard was quoted by the BBC as saying, "We know quite a lot about the pathways that carry pain signals from the body to the brain, but we know rather less about how the brain processes these signals once they arrive.
"Our interest has been in the relationship between the experience of pain and the representation that your brain makes of your own body. And we've shown there's an interesting interaction between brain's visual and pain networks."
The researchers hope that understanding more about the science underpinning pain could one day help to lead to new treatments for chronic conditions. "Thinking beyond the pain stimulus, to our body itself, may lead to novel clinical treatments," Mancini said.
body -- in this case the hand -- during a painful event could actually reduce the pain experienced.
A team from University College London and University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy, has carried out the study and found that watching a painful procedure can make it hurt less, the latest edition of the 'Psychological Science' journal reported.
Flavia Mancini, the first author of the study, said, "The image that the brain forms of our own body has a strong effect on the experienced level of pain. Moreover, the way the body is represented influences the level of pain experienced."
In the study involving 18 volunteers, researchers applied a heat probe to each participant's hand, gradually increasing the temperature. As soon as this began to feel painful, the probe was removed and temperature was recorded.
Patrick Haggard of UCL, the study's co-author, said, "This gives us a measure of the pain threshold, and it is a safe and reliable way of testing when the brain pathways that underline pain become active."
The team then used a set of mirrors to manipulate what the volunteers saw. The researchers found that volunteers could tolerate on an average 3C more heat when they were looking at their hand in the mirror, compared with when their hand was obscured by a block of wood.
Prof Haggard said, "You always advise children not to look when they are having an injection or a blood sample taken, but we have found that looking at the body is analgesic -- just looking at the body reduces pain levels.
"So my advice would be to look at your arm, but try to avoid seeing the needle -- if that's possible."
In another experiment, the researchers used convex mirrors to enlarge the appearance of the participant's hand.
They found that doing so meant the volunteers were able to tolerate higher temperatures.
Conversely, when the team made the volunteers' hands look smaller, their pain threshold decreased. The researchers said the fact that pain levels were directly proportional to the size the body was viewed at was helping them to better understand the neurological basis of pain.
Prof Haggard was quoted by the BBC as saying, "We know quite a lot about the pathways that carry pain signals from the body to the brain, but we know rather less about how the brain processes these signals once they arrive.
"Our interest has been in the relationship between the experience of pain and the representation that your brain makes of your own body. And we've shown there's an interesting interaction between brain's visual and pain networks."
The researchers hope that understanding more about the science underpinning pain could one day help to lead to new treatments for chronic conditions. "Thinking beyond the pain stimulus, to our body itself, may lead to novel clinical treatments," Mancini said.
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