Pain memory is not kindled merely by painful memories and associations but also with the pain associated with harsh words which is felt in the brain, researchers said.
"Even verbal stimuli lead to reactions in certain areas of the brain", claims Dr. Thomas Weiss from the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena. As soon as we hear words like "tormenting", "gruelling" or "plaguing", exactly those areas in the brain are being activated which process the corresponding pain.In the new study, the scientist and his team from the Dept. of Biological and Clinical Psychology have examined how pain-associated words are processed in the brain.
The psychologists from Jena University were able to examine this phenomenon using functional magnetic resonance tomography (fMRT).
In their study they investigated how healthy subjects process words associated with experiencing pain. In order to prevent reactions based on a plain negative affect the subjects were also confronted with negatively connotated words like "terrifying", "horrible" or "disgusting" besides the proper pain words.
"Subject performed two tasks", explains Maria Richter, doctoral candidate in Weiss's team.
"In a first task, subjects were supposed to imagine situations which correspond to the words", the Jena psychologist says. In a second task, subjects were also reading the words but they were distracted by a brain-teaser.
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"These findings show that words alone are capable of activating our pain matrix", underlines Prof. Weiss.
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For the Jena psychologist the question remains open which role the verbal confrontation with pain plays for chronic pain patients. "They tend to speak a lot about their experiencing of pain to their physician or physiotherapist", Maria Richter says.
It is possible that those conversations intensify the activity of the pain matrix in the brain and therefore intensify the pain experience. This is what the Jena psychologists want to clarify in another study.
Source-ANI
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