Brain Mechanisms of Virtual Reality Breathing Versus Traditional Mindful Breathing in Pain Modulation: Observational Functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Pain is a complex experience that involves sensory-discriminative and cognitive-emotional neuronal processes. It has long been known across cultures that pain can be relieved by mindful breathing (MB). There is a common assumption that MB exerts its analgesic effect through interoception. Interoception refers to consciously refocusing the mind's attention to the physical sensation of internal organ function.

Objective

In this study, we dissect the cortical analgesic processes by imaging the brains of healthy subjects exposed to traditional MB (TMB) and compare them with another group for which we augmented MB to an outside sensory experience via virtual reality breathing (VRB).

Methods

The VRB protocol involved in-house-developed virtual reality 3D lungs th

SUBMITTER: Hu XS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8548979 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature