Virtual reality goggles and headsets absolutely exploded in the late twenty-teens, with products like the HTC Vive and Oculus offering incredible ways to experience video and gaming.

Now, scientists are using VR experiences to study how the brain reacts to pain by showing  participants breathtaking natural scenery while shocking them in the arm.

Conducted at Britain’s University of Exeter, the observed effects were as strong as painkillers, and even lasted longer than the 45-minute VR experience. They were also twice as effective, as calculated through questionnaires, than 2D video and sound experiences of the same scenery.

While the hype and interest in VR has died down a little with a fall in the devices’ novelty, the study shows that they perhaps have a broader role to play in society than previously thought.

“We’ve seen a growing body of evidence show that exposure to nature can help reduce short term, everyday pain, but there has been less research into how this might work for people living with chronic or longer-term pain,” said Dr. Sam Hughes, Senior Lecturer in pain neuroscience at the University of Exeter, and leader in the study.

Not everyone is able to get out for walks in nature, however, particularly those living with long term health conditions—like chronic pain.

The experiment was funded by the Academy of Medical Sciences, and involved 29 healthy participants who were shown two still images of nature after having pain delivered on the forearm via electric shock. On the first visit, they measured the changes in pain that occur over a 50-minute period following the electric shocks.

On the second visit, they immersed the same participants in a 45-minute virtual reality 360-degree experience of the waterfalls of Oregon to see how this could change the development of pain sensitivity. The scene was specially chosen to maximize therapeutic effects.

In the second visit, they explored the same scene, but on a 2D screen. Patients were then examined via fMRI scans.

The researchers found that the immersive VR experience significantly reduced the feelings of pain associated with the pricking stimuli of the electric shocks, and that these pain-reducing effects were still there even at the end of the 45-minute experience.

The more present the person felt during the VR experience, the stronger this pain-relieving effect, reports Science Daily.

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The fMRI brain scans also revealed that people with stronger connectivity in brain regions involved in modulating pain responses experienced less pain. The results suggest that nature scenes delivered using VR can help change how pain signals are transmitted in the brain and spinal cord during long-term pain conditions.

Dr. Sonia Medina, of the University of Exeter Medical School and one of the authors on the study said the clear hypothesis is that VR experiences are so stimulative and immersive that it had a greater effect in reducing pain.

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“It really created that feeling of being present in nature—and we found the pain-reducing effect was greatest in people for whom that perception was strongest,” Dr. Medina told the Univ. of Exeter press.

“We hope our study leads to more research to investigate further how exposure to nature effects our pain responses, so we could one day see nature scenes incorporated into ways of reducing pain for people in settings like care homes or hospitals.”

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