Trippy knee illusions relieve arthritis pain
Weekly nuggets of pain science news and insight, usually 100-300 words, with the occasional longer post. The blog is the “director’s commentary” on the core content of PainScience.com: a library of major articles and books about common painful problems and popular treatments. See the blog archives or updates for the whole site.
Fresh science! Nifty proof-of-concept study shows that “visuotactile illusions” can reduce osteoarthritis pain by up to 40%. That’s substantial, and consistent with the important theory that pain is mostly a brain export only loose related to tissue trouble.
And what kind of illusions were these, pray tell? What sorcery reduces arthritic knee pain just by fooling the brain? Two similar illusions, basically using virtual reality goggles to make it look like the knee was either shrinking or stretching. 😜 Whoaa, duuuuude …
(Disclaimer: “Fresh science” posts are quick takes on papers I have not yet read carefully.)