London, April 7 (IANS) Sticks and stones may break your bones but words can hurt you too, a study suggests.

Scientists have found that reading a list of words associated with agonising experiences triggers a reaction in the part of the brain that handles pain, reports dailymail.co.uk.

Although there is no immediate physical response, scientists suspect that hearing such words before experiencing pain could make the sensation worse, as the brain is primed to expect it.

"These findings show that words alone are capable of activating our pain matrix. Our results suggest as well that verbal stimuli have a more important meaning than we have thought so far,�hsaid Professor Thomas Weiss, who led the study.

Some of the words - such as "tormenting", "crampy" and "excruciating" - were chosen because they are associated with pain.

But others - such as "terrifying", "horrible", and "disgusting" were selected to evoke negative emotions without being directly linked to pain.

The study found that words associated with painful sensations triggered a response in the regions of the brain that process pain.