For hundreds of years, people have been using meditation to try to relieve their pain, but recently scientists have been able to test if and how it works. Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine measured the effects of meditation on pain perception.
The brain areas involved in pain sensation and those that produce the sense of self were disrupted by the use of meditation. The person doesn't feel as much ownership over their pain sensations, so their pain and suffering are reduced.
The principle that you are not your experiences is one of the central tenets of meditation. We're now seeing how this plays out in the brain during the experience of acute pain, because you train yourself to experience thoughts and sensations without attaching your ego or sense of self to them.
40 people had their brains scanned on the first day of the study. During the experiment, participants had to rate their pain levels on a scale of 1 to 10.
The participants were divided into two groups. Four 20-minute training sessions were done by members of the group. They were told to focus on their breath and reduce self-referential processing by first acknowledging their thoughts, sensations and emotions but then letting them go without reacting to them. A group of people listened to an audio book.
On the final day of the study, both groups had their brain activity measured again, but participants in theMindfulness group were told to meditate during the painful heat, while the control group rested with their eyes closed.
People who were meditating reported a 33 percent reduction in pain unpleasantness.
"We were very excited to confirm that you don't have to be an expert to experience the effects of these drugs." Millions of people look for a fast-acting and non-pharmacological treatment for pain.
When the team analyzed participants' brain activity during the task, they found that there was a reduction in the thalamus and parts of the default mode network.
One of the first areas to go offline when a person loses consciousness is the precuneus, a brain area involved in self-awareness. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is used to process how you relate to or place value on your experiences. The more decoupled or deactivated these areas, the more relief they provide.
The mental suffering and frustration that comes along with chronic pain can affect a person's quality of life. Their pain becomes a part of who they are as individuals, and this makes their suffering worse.
A new method for pain treatment may be provided by surrendering the self-referential appraisal of pain. It is free to practice and can be done anywhere. Trainings can be integrated into standard outpatient procedures.
A novel non-opioid-based pain mechanism in which the default mode network plays a critical role in producing analgesia is close to being discovered. We are excited to explore the neuroscience ofMindfulness and its clinical potential.
The co-authors are Gabriel Riegner, Valeria Oliva and William Mobley at UC San Diego.
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The materials were provided by the University of California. Nicole Mlynaryk wrote the original The content can be edited for style and length.
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