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One study showed that mindfulness – a meditative practice to pay attention to the present – can increase a person's tolerance for pain.
The researchers analyzed data obtained from a study conducted in 2015 comparing mindfulness meditation to placebo analgesia.
They sought to determine whether the dispositional attention, the innate or natural level of consciousness of an individual was associated with a lower sensitivity to pain and to identify the brain mechanisms involved.
"Mindfulness is connected to the awareness of the present moment without much emotional reaction or judgment," said Fadel Zeidan, assistant professor at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
"We now know that some people are more aware than others, and these people seem to feel less pain," said Zeidan, lead author of the study published in the journal Pain.
Whole brain tests revealed that better vigilance during painful heat was associated with greater deactivation of a region of the brain called the posterior cingulate cortex, a central neural node of the default network.
"The results showed that conscious individuals are less caught in the pain experience, which was associated with lower pain reports," Zeidan said.
"Now we have new ammunition to target this region of the brain in the development of effective pain therapies," he said.
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