Study Says Brain Can Control Pain
An American study suggests people can learn to suppress pain when shown the activity of a pain-control region of their brain, according to New Scientist. This new biofeedback technique might also turn out to be useful for treating other conditions, the report says.
Biofeedback techniques based on electroencephalogram recordings of brainwave patterns, in which electrodes are placed on the scalp, are used with some success to treat epilepsy and attention problems. Fumiko Maeda, Christopher deCharms and their colleagues at Stanford University in California have tried showing people real-time feedback from a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner. Eight volunteers saw the activity of a pain-control region called the rostral anterior cingulate cortex represented on a screen either as a flame that varied in size, or as a simple scrolling bar graph.
It took just three 13-minute sessions in the scanner for the volunteers to learn to vary the brain activity level and thus to develop some control over their pain sensations, the researchers reported at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society meeting in San Francisco last week.
Copyright 2004 by United Press International.
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- Updated: May 16, 2004 |
Study Says Brain Can Control Pain
Posted - 08/02/2004 : 14:31:14
