Recent research indicates that at least some of one’s pain is a matter of the mind. The research, conducted at the University College London by Dr. Tania Singer and colleagues, monitored brain activity in 16 women when a painful shock was given to each woman's right hand or that of a male partner.

    Key regions of the brain appear to react as much to expectations and empathy as they do to actual painful stimulation, the study demonstrated. The findings not only give fresh insight into how the human brain and nervous system work, but could open new opportunities for treating pain -- particularly pain for which there is no physical cause.

    Some, but not all, of the same pain-sensitive regions of the brain were as active when women watched male partners receiving a shock to the hand as when the women themselves got the jolt, British researchers reported. Likewise, activity in certain pain-sensing parts of the brain slacked off in subjects after an application of a cream they were told would lessen the pain of a mild electric jolt or heat to the skin, American scientists too, reported.

    "The main point all this brings home is that the brain has mechanisms to directly control what we feel; it actively controls the flow of sensory information that results in our perceptions," said Dr. Kenneth Casey, a professor of neurology at the University of Michigan and a neurology consultant to the VA Health Care System in Ann Arbor.

    All the studies reported today are part of a larger field of research that explores how the mind creates a representation of what another individual is experiencing. "Our human capacity to 'tune in' to others when exposed to their feelings may explain why we do not always behave selfishly in human interactions, but instead engage in altruistic, helping behavior," Dr. Singer said. She is doing more research to see if similar brain reactions occur between people who don't have an emotional bond.