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Crossing your arms may reduce pain

Boy looking angry, staring into the camera

The researchers believe the brain areas relating to the body and external space are usually activated together (Source: Chuck Collier /iStockphoto)


Scientists from University College London (UCL), reporting their finding in the journal Pain, think the reason for the phenomenon is conflicting information between two of the brain's maps - one for the body and one for external space.

"In everyday life you mostly use your left hand to touch things on the left side of the world, and your right hand for the right side of the world," says Giandomenico Iannetti of UCL's department of physiology, pharmacology and neuroscience.

He says this means the brain areas that hold the map of the right body and the map of right external space are usually activated together, leading to very effective pain processing.

"When you cross your arms these maps are not activated together anymore," he says, leading to less effective processing meaning that stimuli such as pain can perceived as weaker.

In the study, scientists used a laser to generate a four millisecond pin prick of "pure pain" - in other words pain without touch - on the hands of a group of eight participants. This was then repeated with arms crossed.

Participants rated their perception of the pain intensity, and their electrical brain responses were also measured using electroencephalography (EEG). Results from both participants' reports and the EEG showed that the perception of pain was weaker when the arms were crossed.

"Perhaps when we get hurt, we should not only 'rub it better' but also cross our arms," says Iannetti.

The researchers hope their discovery could lead to the development of new drugs and therapies to reduce pain that exploit the brain's way of mapping the body.

Tags: pain, psychology, back-pain, headache