Pain switch? Turn it off!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
When pain calls, you may order that prescription… with a risky side effect of addiction? Yikes! Is there another way to hit mute on pain?
Enter Wynn Legon and team from Virginia Tech.
Their mission? Dial down the agony by shutting off the brain’s pain button: a small region called the INSULA!
They applied heat to the hands of twenty-three healthy adults to induce pain. Then, they targeted their insulas with ultrasounds. Participants rated their pain from zero to six, and their heartbeats were monitored.
And? Boo yah! Pain perception was reduced by SEVENTEEN PERCENT after ten minutes, and their heartbeats relaxed.
Targeted ultrasounds could improve quality of life for people with chronic pain. And painkillers could be replaced with over-the-counter medicines!
Looks like it’s pain off, and party on!
Reference: Legon, W., Strohman, A., In, A., & Payne, B. (2024). Noninvasive neuromodulation of subregions of the human insula differentially affect pain processing and heart-rate variability: a within-subjects pseudo-randomized trial. Pain, 10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003171. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000003171