Summary: Looking at natural scenes can significantly reduce how people perceive pain, and new neuroimaging studies have discovered. The researchers found that participants reported less pain and showed changes in brain activity associated with pain perception, looking at the virtual nature of the study compared to urban and office environments.
When analysing brain scans using advanced machine learning, scientists confirmed that this pain-relieving effect was not merely a placebo effect, but a reduced activity in the area that processes sensory pain signals. Findings suggest that natural virtual experiences may serve as an accessible, non-invasive treatment to complement traditional pain management.
Important Facts:
Decreased pain perception: Looking at scenes of virtual nature, both reported pain and brain activity were reduced in relation to pain processing. Brain scans showed that the brain’s sensory pain signal was significantly reduced when participants saw the natural scene.
Source: University of Exeter
New neuroimaging studies have shown that looking at the properties can help people relieve the way people experience pain by reducing brain activity associated with pain perception.
Published in the journal Nature Communications and led by a team from the University of Vienna and Exeter, the study offers a promising foundation for a new type of non-pharmacological pain treatment.
Using an fMRI scanner, the researchers monitored brain activity in 49 Austrian participants as they received pain delivered through a series of small electric shocks.
When they watched videos of natural scenes compared to urban and indoor offices, participants not only felt less pain, but also showed that the scans also altered the specific brain responses associated with pain processing.
In this study, advanced machine learning was used to analyze brain networks related to pain treatment. The team discovered that when they saw a carefully designed, high-quality, virtual nature scene, they received raw sensory signals that the brain receives when something hurts.
This study confirms previous findings suggesting that nature can reduce subjective reporting of pain, and also provides an initial clear demonstration of how the natural environment affects the brain, helping to buffer unpleasant experiences.
Max Steininger, a doctoral student at the University of Vienna, described as the lead author of the study.
“However, up until now, the underlying reason for this effect has not been unknown. Our study is the first to provide evidence that this was not just a “placebo” effect, but was driven by people’s beliefs and expectations that nature is good for them. Instead, the brain is not very responsive to information about where the pain is coming from or how it feels.
“Our findings suggest that natural pain relief effects are authentic, but the effects we found were about half of the painkillers.
“People in pain should certainly continue taking prescribed medications. But we hope that it will help improve pain management with future alternatives to relieve pain, such as experiencing nature.”
This paper also helps to shed light on the longstanding mystery of the healing potential of the natural environment.
More than 40 years ago, an inventive study from the pioneering study of American researcher Roger Ulrich showed how hospital patients can take fewer painkillers and recover faster when windows overlook green spaces instead of brick walls. However, following decades of research, the mechanism underlying this effect remained unknown.
The new findings provide the first robust explanation of why Ulrich’s patients suffered less pain, demonstrating how virtual encounters can bring these benefits anywhere and anywhere.
“This study highlights how virtual encounters can bring natural healing possibilities to people when they can’t go outside,” said Dr. Alex Smurry, co-author at the University of Exeter.
“However, our results hopefully serve as new evidence of the importance of protecting healthy, functional natural environments and encouraging people to spend time in nature for the benefit of both the planet and people.”
“The fact that this pain-relieving effect can be achieved through hypothetical natural exposure that is easy to administer has important practical implications for non-pharmacological treatments, opening new avenues for research to better understand how nature affects our minds.”
About this pain and neuroscience research news
Author: Louise Bennels
Source: University of Exeter
Contact: Louise Bennels – University of Exeter
Image: Image credited to Neuroscience News
Original research: Open access.
“Spontaneous exposure induces analgesic effects by acting on nociception-related neural processing,” Max Steininger et al. Natural Communication
Abstract
Nature exposure induces analgesic effects by acting on nociception-related neural processing
Nature exposure has many health benefits and can reduce self-reported acute pain.
Given the multifaceted, subjective pain quality and the methodological limitations of previous studies, it is unclear whether the evidence shows genuine analgesic effects or the outcome of domain general effects and subjective reporting bias.
This prerequisite neuroimaging study explores how nature modulates nociception-related and regional brain responses to acute pain.
Healthy participants (n = 49) reported lower pain when exposed to a virtual nature when exposed to electrical shock, compared to matched settings in urban or indoor controls.
Multivoxel signatures of pain-related brain activation patterns indicate that this subjective analgesic effect is associated with reduced nociception-related reductions rather than cognitively emotional neuropathy processing of domain generals.
Prerequisite region analysis supports these results and highlights reduced activation of regions associated with somatosensory aspects of pain treatment (thalamus, secondary somatosensory cortex, and posterior insula).
These findings show that virtual natural exposure allows for authentic analgesic effects through changes in nociceptive and somatosensory processing, and advances understanding of how nature is used to complement non-pharmacological pain treatment.
What this analgesic effect can be achieved by facilitating easy virtual natural exposure has important practical implications and opens up new means for research into the precise mechanisms in which nature affects our minds and brains.
