Abstract
In recent years, there has been a rise in changing the visual body image as a method of rehabilitation for chronic pain. However, it has been thought that changing the visual body image gives rise to unpleasant and has little effect in analgesia. Now we investigated, using a rubber hand illusion, whether these unpleasant caused by changing the visual body image of a healthy person are able to modulate pain. In order to create these unpleasant, we created a "injured rubber hand", a "hairy rubber hand", and a "twisted rubber hand". We proceeded to measure the level of unpleasant and the pain threshold in those using each rubber hand. They found that while both the "injured rubber hand" and "hairy rubber hand" created unpleasant in subjects, only the "injured rubber hand" made pain worse. Through this, it became apparent that unpleasant felt in the context of pain can modulate pain.
