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Trippy knee illusions relieve arthritis pain
Paul Ingraham • ARCHIVEDMicroblog posts are archived and rarely updated. In contrast, most long-form articles on PainScience.com are updated regularly over the years (see updates page).
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 …
Psychedic cat is shrinking & stretching all over. Or … something.
(Disclaimer: “Fresh science” posts are quick takes on papers I have not yet read carefully.)
