Wired News: Think Away the Pain

Wired News: Think Away the Pain: "Pain can be mysterious, untreatable and debilitating, and its causes can be unknown. But if you could see the pain -- or, at least, your brain's reaction to it -- you might be able to master it.

A study from researchers at Stanford University and MRI technology company Omneuron suggests that's possible, and the results could lead to better therapies for those suffering from crippling chronic pain."

The researchers asked people in pain to try to control a pain-regulating region of the brain by watching activity in that area from inside a real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, machine. Initial results showed subjects could reduce their pain, some quite dramatically.

It's the first evidence that humans can take control of a specific region of the brain, and thereby decrease pain, said Stanford professor Sean Mackey, who co-wrote the paper, which was published last week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"(Similar to) going to a gym and working muscle using weights, here we're using the real-time fMRI technology to exercise a certain brain region," he said.