RETRAINING THE BRAIN REDUCES PAIN

Patients with chronic pain can retrain their brain to respond differently to reduce or eliminate pain. In this study, conducted at Stanford University and published in the proceedings of the National academy of Sciences, researchers enabled patients to watch their brain activity on a functional MRI scanner. While the patient watched that portion of the brain involved in the perception of pain – the rostral anterior cingulate cortex – the researcher applied a pain stimulus to the patient’s brain response to pain would be visible. Then the researcher coached the patient on trying to change the way the brain responded. While watching the brain’s response, the patient would attempt various mental strategies, or visualize different images, to discover how to modify the brain’s activity. When successful, the experience of pain vanished.