Trial reportJournal of pain research2025
Cortical Activation and Functional Connectivity Response to Different Interactive Modes of Virtual Reality (VR)-Induced Analgesia: A Prospective Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) Study.
Trial report in Journal of pain research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The effect of virtual reality on anxiety and pain in patients undergoing totally implantable venous access port: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Clinical efficacy and cortical network modulation of a multimodal sensory feedback upper-limb rehabilitation robot for post-stroke upper-limb recovery: a randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in neurology · 2026Trial
- Functional near-infrared spectroscopy: Systematic mapping of abnormal brain function features in neurological disorders.Neural regeneration research · 2026Article
- fNIRS-Based characterization of adolescent depression using dynamic functional connectivity biomarkers in a verbal fluency task.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Working Memory Load-Dependent Cortical Mechanism of Distraction Analgesia in Healthy Individuals: An fNIRS Study.Journal of pain research · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Aim: Virtual reality (VR) can be analgesic through intercortical modulation. This study investigated neural activities and correlates during different interactive modes. Methods: Fifteen healthy participants (4M, 11F, age 21.93 ± 0.59 years) underwent functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to compare cortical activation and functional connectivity (FC) across brain regions of interest (ROI) and channels (CH) during VR experiences. In the active mode (AM), participants engaged with the virtual environment through motor actions. In the passive mode (PM), participants stood still with their eyes closed, listening to the virtual environment's music. Results: A better analgesic effect was observed in the AM (t = 3.572, p = 0.001) with higher visual-sensorimotor cortical activation (t = 2.59 to 3.99, p = <0.001 to 0.015, p-FDR < 0.05). AM showed significant correlations between ratings (pain level and immersion) of VR questionnaire and visual-motor ROIs (r = 0.547 to 0.595, p = 0.013 to 0.038). PM only correlated with pain level and CH 37 (r = 0.608, p = 0.016). FC between S1 and visual-motor-auditory regions was lower in the AM (t = -4.64 to -3.53, p = 0.029 to 0.049). Conclusion: VR-induced analgesia occurs via augmenting the visual-sensorimotor-auditory cortical activation, reducing S1 connectivity and weakening pain processing.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.