According to groundbreaking research, simply watching videos of natural environments can significantly reduce body pain, revealing how different our brains are about pain when exposed to nature.
In a study published by Nature Communications, neuroscientists from the University of Vienna found that participants who experienced acute pain felt less uncomfortable when watching natural scenes than in urban or indoor environments. Even more surprisingly, brain scans showed actual changes in pain-processing neural activity.
“Pain management is a complex phenomenon,” explains Max Steininger, a research lead and doctoral student at the University of Vienna. His team used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to observe brain activity, while painful participants watched different video scenes.
The results not only show subjective reports of pain relief during natural exposure, but also objective changes in neural activity in areas particularly associated with pain management.
Unlike previous studies on pain relief methods, this study shows that nature affects pain in the basic nervous system. “Pain is like a puzzle, composed of different works, and is handled differently in the brain,” Steininger explained. “Some puzzles are related to our emotional response to pain, such as how unpleasant we find it. Other works correspond to physical signals of painful experiences.”
What makes this finding particularly important is how it differs from the placebo effect, which usually only changes our emotional response to pain. “Unlike placebos that usually change our emotional response to pain, observing the brain changes the brain’s early processing, the pain signal of the original sensory signal,” Steininger said. “This effect seems to be unaffected by the expectations of the participants, but more by changes in the underlying pain signal.”
Professor Claus Lamm, who leads the research group, noted that although previous studies have shown that pain in the natural environment has been reported to be reduced, the mechanism behind this phenomenon is not clear. “Our research shows that the brain responds less to the body source and intensity of pain,” Lamm explained.
The international team, including researchers from the University of Exeter and the University of Birmingham, UK, and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Germany, represents the first collaboration between neuroscientists and environmental psychologists on the topic at the University of Vienna.
This interdisciplinary approach has produced discoveries through potential widespread applications. The fact that simply watching natural videos is enough to trigger pain suggests that the actual physical presence in a natural environment may not be a necessary condition for benefit.
This can have a significant impact on pain management strategies in hospitals, rehabilitation centers and even home care. A virtual natural experience (video or virtual reality) may provide accessible pain options for people with movement rate limits or in settings that access outdoor environments.
The research team suggests that nature-based treatments can become valuable complementary therapies for pain management, providing a non-pharmaceutical option with few side effects.
LAMM and researcher Mathew White are both members of the Center for Environmental and Climate Research (ECH) of the University of Vienna, which brings together researchers from different disciplines to address pressing environmental challenges such as climate change and biodiversity losses.
As healthcare providers increasingly seek comprehensive approaches to pain management to reduce reliance on medications, this study provides effective evidence for natural interventions that are both effective and readily available.
This study adds to growing evidence that our disconnection from the natural environment in modern urban environments may have previously had unrecognized consequences for physical health and perception of pain, and reconnecting with nature, even providing almost significant therapeutic benefits.
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