Pain and pleasure

New research has uncovered the mysteries behind the mechanism of sexual violence, thus paving the way for new pain relief therapies.

There are those who chew the chilli and make the eyes pour in aura but still inhale the delicious compliments, others have a hobby of being tortured to the scar, the people in the new love can reach orgasm. To date, Norwegian researchers have claimed to have discovered the mystery behind these feelings. Accordingly, when the pain is milder than expected, the feeling of relief can make that experience turn into pleasure.

Many people still eat chili despite its pungent taste - (Photo: Tistory)

Psychologist Siri Leknes of the University of Oslo (Norway) said she began to wonder about the phenomenon of 'it should have been worse' since he was a graduate student at Oxford University (UK). To test the effect of this phenomenon, she recruited 16 healthy volunteers and asked them to prepare for a painful feeling. Accordingly, the objects in turn get hot pressed into their hands for 4 seconds, with temperatures adjusted differently each time. First, the temperature is set at a level that does not cause pain to participants, with the same heat as holding a cup of hot coffee. The second time, the temperature is increased or decreased. During the experiment, the brain activity of the subjects was recorded by magnetic resonance scanner (MRI).

As expected, the intense heat immediately triggered negative feelings in all subjects, while the mild heat produced positive reactions. What surprised the researchers was that the reaction of the subject to the pain was softer.'The most plausible explanation is when the participants are mentally prepared to receive the feeling of pain, and then they feel relieved that the pain is not as great as imagined , ' said Dr. Leknes. In other words, this feeling of relief may be strong enough to turn a clearly negative experience into a pleasant or even enjoyable feeling.

Dr. Leknes said that the study showed how the brain can interpret a stimulus in many different directions. The finding may help a person interpret pain into an acceptable one, meaning they will feel less pain. However, pain is really an unpleasant experience for everyone, and it is difficult to apply the same pain-relieving therapy to all subjects. Therefore, it is very important to find out the mechanism of brain pain control, according to Dr. Leknes.'We are currently at the fundamental research level, but hopefully this new knowledge will have the opportunity to take advantage to find ways to reduce pain in patients' , the female doctor concluded.