Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 5, 2025

3D-Neuronavigation In Vivo Through a Patient's Brain During a Spontaneous Migraine Headache
Published on: June 2, 2014
Interoception visualization relieves acute pain
Wenxiao Gong1, Lijia Gu2, Wu Wang1
1School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Abstract:
Interoception is the sensation of the physiological state inside one's body. Growing evidence suggests that visual feedback of interoception improves body self-consciousness (BSC) and reduces pain perception among patients with chronic pain. However, whether the integration of exteroception and interoception influences pain processing in healthy individuals remains largely unknown. To examine this question, we combined the rubber hand illusion (RHI) paradigm with visualized interoception -flashing of an LED light on the rubber hand synchronously or asynchronously with participants' real-time heartbeats. Under these conditions, we tested pain thresholds and corresponding event-related potentials. The interoceptive visual feedback inhibited the P2 component of pain, and the RHI inhibited pre-stimulus alpha-band brain activity. BSC had no significant effect on the processing of pain. These findings demonstrate that interoceptive signals with visual feedback inhibit pain processing, and that this psychophysiological process is largely independent of reported self-consciousness, in healthy individuals.
Related Concept Videos
Pain
Nociception
Analgesia and Pain Management
Blood and Nerve Supply to the Bones
Nutrient Artery
The nutrient artery is the main blood vessel that enters the diaphysis via the nutrient foramen. While most long bones have only one nutrient foramen, large bones, such as the femur, may have two. This...
Thermosensation
Somatosensation

