The next time you feel pain, you might consider skipping the pain reliever and picking up an old photo.
Nostalgia — that sentimental feeling of longing for the past — can reduce the perception of pain, according to new research published in the journal JNeurosci.
Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Liaoning Normal University asked study participants to rate their level of pain from heat stimulation while looking at nostalgic images — depicting old cartoons, childhood games or retro candy — compared to more modern images.
During the tasks, an MRI machine also scanned the 34 participants.
The researchers found that looking at photos that triggered childhood memories was linked to participants reporting weaker feelings of pain.
“By managing their discomfort, rather than eliminating or reducing (unpleasant) stimuli, people can use nostalgia to reframe their painful experiences,” Joe Yazhuo Kong, one of the study’s authors, said in an email.
“Nostalgia is a predominantly positive emotion that people easily perceive in their lives,” said Kong, research group leader at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Laboratory of Integrative Neuroimaging of Pain.
“For example, people can feel happy and at peace when browsing their grouped photos with family or friends.”
Previous studies have also demonstrated the psychological and emotional benefits of nostalgia. A study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology showed that nostalgia – triggered by a writing task – decreased the perception of pain intensity among people suffering from chronic pain.
Other research found that people had a greater pain tolerance after nostalgic thoughts, according to Cathy Cox, an associate professor of psychology at Texas Christian University.
“It’s nice to find more and more research doing the overlap between these psychological and emotional constructs that we’re studying and these biological and behavioral responses,” said Cox, a psychologist with a focus on nostalgia. She was not involved in the study.
Given that it is rare and expensive to use MRI scans for psychology research, according to Cox, not much was known about the biological mechanisms underlying the positive effects of nostalgia.
“During this nostalgia-induced pain relief process, the thalamus plays a crucial role,” Kong told CNN.
The thalamus, often described as the brain’s relay station, is responsible for transmitting sensory information and motor signals to the cerebral cortex.
The new study showed that the thalamus integrates this “nostalgia information” and triggers a more controlled pain response. Viewing nostalgic photos also decreased activity in two areas of the brain related to pain.
And it’s not just old photos that can lead to positive responses due to nostalgia – music, movies, or certain stories can also trigger this. As well as odors, like perfumes, or the taste of certain foods, like childhood sweets or cookies that remind someone of home.
All these nostalgia triggers could be useful in the future to provide people with inexpensive and easily accessible pain management tools.
Cox and Julie Swets, a doctoral student at Texas Christian University, are also working on research into how nostalgia can be used as a resource to manage conflict in romantic relationships and increase satisfaction between partners.
But Swets cautioned that using nostalgia to alleviate pain may not be a one-size-fits-all solution. Previous studies highlight that nostalgia is a personal emotional experience that varies in terms of frequency and intensity.
“What nostalgia is is this feeling of connection to other people,” Swets said, noting that cues in many studies are designed to make people think about good times with family and friends.
“So people who are a little more shy of intimacy with other people, or more likely to prefer distance to close relationships, those people don’t reap the same benefits of nostalgia.”
As with other positive psychology interventions, such as practicing mindfulness or yoga, impacts can be person-dependent.
The researchers involved in the new JNeurosci study also have plans to use different age groups in future research and look at the impacts of more personal nostalgic cues rather than generic nostalgias like old songs and movies.
“We expect a much stronger pain-relieving effect if participants look at personal scenarios, whatever the visual or non-visual cues,” Kong told CNN.
Source: CNN Brasil
