Nature videos help relieve physical pain  

Neuroimaging study on the processing of pain signals in the brain

To the point

• A neuroimaging study examined the processing of pain signals in the brain as participants’ watched virtual nature videos.
• Participants reported less pain and showed lower activity in brain regions associated with specific pain processing.
• The findings underscore the importance of nature-based therapeutic approaches in pain management.

Experiencing nature can relieve acute physical pain - even without actually being in nature. Just watching virtual nature videos can have this effect, as an international research team led by the University of Vienna and involving the Max Planck Institute for Human Development has discovered. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the researchers showed that not only was pain perceived as less intense and unpleasant when watching nature videos, but brain activity associated with pain was also reduced. These findings, published in Nature Communications, underscore the potential of nature-based therapies as complementary approaches to pain management.

“Pain processing is a complex phenomenon” explained study lead and doctoral student Max Steininger from the University of Vienna. In order to better understand it and identify treatment options, Steininger and his colleagues from the universities of Exeter and Birmingham (UK) and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin (Germany) investigated how nature exposure influences pain: participants suffering from pain were shown three types of videos: a nature scene, an indoor scene, and an urban scene. The participants rated the pain while their brain activity was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging. The results were clear: when viewing the nature scene, the participants not only reported less pain but also showed reduced activity in brain regions associated with pain processing.

Nature videos reduce early, body-related pain signaling

By analyzing the brain data, the researchers showed that viewing nature reduced the raw sensory signal the brain receives when in pain. “Pain is like a puzzle, made up of different pieces that are processed differently in the brain. Some pieces of the puzzle relate to our emotional response to pain, such as how unpleasant we find it. Other pieces correspond to the physical signals underlying the painful experience, such as its location in the body and its intensity. Unlike placebos, which usually change our emotional response to pain, viewing nature changed how the brain processed early, raw sensory signals of pain. Thus, the effect appears to be less influenced by participants’ expectations, and more by changes in the underlying pain signals,” explains Steininger.

“The results are extremely exciting for research. They suggest that the perception of natural environments is not only effective in later stages of pain processing, but that they already influence the basic sensory mechanisms of pain processing,” commented study co-author Simone Kühn. Kühn is director of the Center for Environmental Neuroscience at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, where she studies the effects of the environment on individuals and their brains. “This study should encourage further research to gain a better understanding of the neural basis of the positive effects of nature perception,” Kühn continued. Even a 60-minute walk in nature has been shown to have a calming effect, as Kühn discovered in a study in 2022.

The current study provides important information on how nature can help alleviate pain and highlights that nature-based therapeutic approaches can be a useful addition to pain treatment. The fact that this effect was observed by simply watching nature videos suggests that taking a walk outdoors may not be necessary. Virtual nature – such as videos or virtual reality – appears to be effective as well. This opens up a wide range of possible applications in both the private and medical sectors, providing people with a simple and accessible way to relieve their pain.