Exposure to an Immersive Virtual Reality Environment can Modulate Perceptual Correlates of Endogenous Analgesia and Central Sensitization in Healthy Volunteers

•Virtual reality (VR) enhanced conditioned pain modulation (CPM) efficiency.•Sham VR exposure reduced CPM efficiency.•There was no effect of real or sham VR on acute pain thresholds.•Real and sham VR had no effect on pain ratings during the CPM conditioning period.•VR attenuated mechanical pain sensitivity in a human surrogate model of central sensitization.