Nature exposure induces analgesic effects by acting on nociception-related neural processing.

ABSTRACT: Nature exposure has numerous health benefits and might reduce self-reported acute pain. Given the multi-faceted and subjective quality of pain and methodological limitations of prior research, it is unclear whether the evidence indicates genuine analgesic effects or results from domain-general effects and subjective reporting biases. This preregistered neuroimaging study investigates how nature modulates nociception-related and domain-general brain responses to acute pain. Healthy participants (N = 49) receiving electrical shocks report lower pain when exposed to virtual nature compared to matched urban or indoor control settings. Multi-voxel signatures of pain-related brain activation patterns demonstrate that this subjective analgesic effect is associated with reductions in nociception-r

SUBMITTER: Steininger MO 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11906725 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature