A recent study found that viewing positive nostalgic photographs decreases activity in pain-related areas of the brain.
Brain activation of the lingual gyrus and parahippocampal gyrus, areas involved in pain perception, was significantly decreased after viewing nostalgic images compared to control images. CREDIT: Zhang et al., JNeurosci 2021
A study by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that nostalgic feelings appear to reduce activity in pain-related areas of the brain and decrease subjective ratings of thermal pain. The nostalgic images featured scenes and items that corresponded to the participant’s childhood, like a popular candy, cartoon TV show and schoolyard game. For the control condition, participants were shown more recent, modern-day images.The researchers found that viewing nostalgic images reduced pain ratings compared to viewing control images, with the strongest effect on low-intensity pain.
The thalamus may integrate nostalgia information and transmit it downstream to pain pathways, according to a