Mind over pain
Patients could suppress chronic pain by learning to control the activity of certain areas of their brains. Power of the mind can lessen chronic pain Christopher deCharms of imaging technology firm Omneuron in California and his colleagues at Stanford University showed eight patients suffering from chronic pain feedback from real-time functional magnetic resonance images of […]
Patients could suppress chronic pain by learning to control the activity of certain areas of their brains.
Power of the mind can lessen chronic pain
Christopher deCharms of imaging technology firm Omneuron in California and his colleagues at Stanford University showed eight patients suffering from chronic pain feedback from real-time functional magnetic resonance images of the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC), one of the brain’s pain centres.
All of the patients had complicated conditions, including fibromyalgia and neuropathic pain, which had failed to respond to treatment. But after just three 13-minute sessions in the scanner, five of the patients learned to suppress the activity of the rACC and reduce their sensation of pain by more than 50 per cent, according to standard questionnaire assessments (Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, vol 102, p 51).
Full story at NewScientist
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