Augmented Reality Treatment May Alleviate Phantom Limb Pain 30
Zothecula writes with this excerpt from GizMag: "Studies have shown that a large percentage of amputees feel pain in their missing limbs. ... The ailment has so far proven difficult to treat, but a new study suggests therapy involving augmented reality and gaming could stimulate these unused areas of the brain (full journal article), resulting in a significant reduction in discomfort. ... In testing the treatment, the team used myolectric pattern recognition to predict phantom movements in the stump of a chronic PLP patient. By using the patterns as inputs in an augmented setting where a virtual arm was superimposed on the patient's real-life body, as well as controlling a car racing game, the team were able to gradually reduce the pain reported by the patient to zero."
The study is an early one: there's only a single test subject, but one that had no success with any other form of treatment.
Can't help but remember this (Score:5, Insightful)
'I'm dead, Case. Got enough time in on this Hosaka to
figure that one.'
'How's it feel?'
'It doesn't.'
'Bother you?'
'What bothers me is, nothin' does.'
'How's that?'
'Had me this buddy in the Russian camp, Siberia, his thumb
was frostbit. Medics came by and they cut it off. Month later
he's tossin' all night. Elroy, I said, what's eatin' you? Goddam
thumb's itchin', he says. So I told him, scratch it. McCoy, he
says, it's the other goddam thumb.' When the construct laughed,
it came through as something else, not laughter, but a stab of
cold down Case's spine. 'Do me a favor, boy.'
'What's that, Dix?'
'This scam of yours, when it's over, you erase this goddam
thing.'
.