Exposure to an immersive virtual reality environment modulate perceptual correlates of endogenous analgesia and central sensitisation in healthy volunteers

Exposure to immersive 360 ° virtual reality (VR) environments has been shown to produce analgesic effects during acute medical procedures as well as in human surrogate pain models and chronic pain states 12, 21, 30, 31. Growing evidence suggests that cognitive and attentional factors are known to have an influence on spinal cord representations of central sensitisation as well as endogenous analgesic circuitry implicated in the descending control of pain 10, 45. However, there is a lack of research into whether the pain-relieving effects of an immersive VR experience are due to top-down influences on perceptual correl ates of descending pain modulation.
Source: The Journal of Pain - Category: Materials Science Authors: Source Type: research