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VR Cures Amputees' Phantom Limb Pain
Posted by
kdawson
on Tue Nov 14, 2006 02:11 PM
from the all-appendages-functioning dept.
from the all-appendages-functioning dept.
An anonymous reader writes, "Scientists have developed a virtual world like Second Life where real-life amputees have their limbs restored. The experience can cure patients of the perception of pain in their missing limbs. From the article: 'The machine is designed to combat phantom limb pain (PLP) — a sensation of pain experienced by an amputee that appears to originate in the missing limb. Intriguingly, researchers have discovered that if a person's brain can be tricked into believing they can see and move a "phantom limb," this motion reduces the perception of pain in PLP.' The graphics used by the computer look very crude, almost comically so, but apparently the system works."
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If this really works... (Score:4, Funny)
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The only thing that popped into my mind is... why is Bobbitt the first thing on your mind, to associate it with this article?
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But, if he hooks up to the Internets, he might be palmed... ummm pawned...
(Captcha: backfill)
visualization (Score:4, Interesting)
Could this also be accomplished by hypnosis and visualization? If useful, that would reduce the cost -- namely the expensive electronics.
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Hypnosis is really powerful, and can also be very fun... Just take a look at the "Success Stories" on the forum at that site.
Hypnosis? (Score:3, Interesting)
Hypnosis seemed fascinating to me when I was young but when I had the opportunity to experience it (or rather, not) I found out that it isn't uncommon for people to not automagically achieve a hypnotic state.
Not that I'm trying to dismiss your idea altogether, just had an interesting e
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I'm not s
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Honestly I don't see much difference myself, aside from the fact that western hypnosis seems to be a hodge-podge of tradition practices dressed up to be more palatable to modern science. Maybe its easier on the western constitution to say hypnotherapist then monk. It certainly sounds less new-agey, but I suspect there's more to m
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Amputee is sat down at a table with a mirror in front of them so they can see a reflection of their existing arm. By seeing the reflection of the other arm, they can 'trick' their brains into thinking that a phantom limb twisted in an uncomforable position has moved.
Obviously won't work if they have lost both of a pair of limbs though.
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They tried that first. Works sort of, for some people. About as well as it does for sea sickness, another area where unpleasant feelings are caused by a discontinuity in what the brain "knows" and what it "sees" ( your ear "sees" you are in motion, your eyes see you are not. This does not compute and smoke pours out of your ears; and your dinner out of your stomach).
The problem is one of creating a harmonic whole of the input of all the senses. Y
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That is supposed to be a poison-rejecting mechanism, actually - evidently, some poisons make you feel as if you were moving, although you're n
Re:visualization (Score:5, Insightful)
In essence, he had the box and the mirror positioned such that the patient would insert his good arm into the box and have the amputated arm stump occluded. Obviously, a reflected image of the unamputated limb would appear in the mirror to the patient, who was then instructed to position the "phantom limb" such that it superimposed the mirror image. This done, the patient was then instructed to repeatedly clench and declench both hands.
Obviously only one hand was real, but the correlation between what the brain felt was happening and what the eyes reported was happening was sufficient to fool the brain into believing that the phantom fist had been unclenched and thus the phantom limb pain was eliminated. I believe that Ramachandran reported excellent success with this ingenious medical hack.
Parent
Mirrors in a Box (Score:5, Interesting)
I once saw something about this on TV years and years ago. People might feel a phantom limb with a fist grasped so tightly it hurt (like the fingernails in the palm and everything). It was supposed to be horrible (and I'm sure it was).
The report was on a doctor who had developed a box that the patient stuck their real arm in and using mirrors they could see both arms (obviously just a reflection). By having the patient put their "arms" in clenched and talking to them and having them relax them and thinking about unclenching the fist, it would work. The pain would go away because their brain "saw" that the first was unclenched where as before they couldn't see that. I don't know how long it worked, if it needed to be re-done every six months or whatever, but this isn't out of the blue.
Very interesting problem, phantom limb syndrome.
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I can see very little to no advantage of this over the mirrors in a box method that you describe... the therapist speaking to the patient could be done with a recording, or with practice the patient could learn to accomplish this themselves through meditation. So the entire argument that this VR method is better because it can be done in the patient's home is largely invalid. A box with mirrors and a tape deck is going to be significantly cheaper tha
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However you could probably use augmented reality as an alternative. Augmented reality is where an 3D image (or VR) is overlayed on the real world. Today the equipment is a bit cumbersome to carry around, but this will probably be solved in the not so distant future (if not already, been a while since I worked with this).
Surely a pair of eyeglasses that projects the fake image of your missing limb directly into your eyes beats carrying around
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My uncle has lost his hand in traffic accident and had phantom pains. He used such trick: he stood before the mirror, closed one eye and slowly unclenched fist of his other hand. That was enough to trick brain, but this technique stopped working after some time (so he had to take painkillers for some time).
VR imitation might help when simple techniques don't work.
what about double amputees? (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
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The doctor is V.S. Ramachandran, and his work is fascinating. His book on phantom limb syndrome and other psychological conditions is called _Phantoms_in_the_Brain_, and it's thoroughly enjoyable; an easy read (especially if you have no previous exposure to the field), but not so dumbed down as to insult your intelligence. He frequently uses very simple approaches to diagnosing and studying these cases.
His newer book is called _A_Brief_Tour_of_Human_Consciousness_, which deals with some of the same issues
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2nd life (Score:2, Funny)
Wow, it really is like second life.
How available is this? (Score:2, Insightful)
A Scratch for the Itch (Score:1, Redundant)
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Cool! Does it work with my lapboard?
I hear The Monarch's ordering one... (Score:2)
In some cases you don't even need virtual reality (Score:1, Informative)
The w
Cool, but... (Score:5, Funny)
HeAdOn: VR (Score:2, Funny)
VR: Attach it directly to your forehead
VR: Attach it directly to your forehead
Now available without a prescription.
Will it work for people... (Score:2, Funny)
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The Phantom Menace (Score:2, Funny)
Seems like helping to battle this phantom menace would be a good project for ILM to get involved with. Just leave JarJar out of it this time ;)
But then... (Score:3, Insightful)
Phantom Limb Sensation Is a Ton of Fun (Score:5, Interesting)
Neurologically this is kind of interesting and even somewhat cool. About 9 months after my leg was amputated I was out working in my yard clearing a drain during a rainstorm. I was standing in water up to mid calf and my right foot started to get cold because it was soaking wet. I kept mucking out the drain and then I noticed that my left foot, which is actually a cunningly crafted bit [ottobockus.com] of carbon fiber from the folks at Otto Bock [ottobockus.com] felt cold and wet too. It was the damnedest thing and it made me stop for a moment, it felt as if I had a left foot that was in a cold, thoroughly soaking wet sock inside of a thoroughly soaking wet boot. I finished mucking out the drain, went inside, changed into dry clothes and stuck my right foot into a tub of warm water. As my right foot warmed the sensation in my left foot gradually decreased. If I am wearing my prosthesis phantom limb pains feel as if they are coming from the ankle and/or foot of my left leg, if I'm not wearing the prosthesis they feel as if they are coming from the stump. Amputation, the gift that keeps on giving.
Doesn't surprise me... (Score:2)
It's an Excellent book, and is still in print.
Phantom Limb (Score:2)
Old News (Score:2)
What's the connection? (Score:2)
The article makes no mention of Second Life, so I was wondering just where the anonymous submitter got that connection from.
Then I read his last sentence. "The graphics used by the computer look very crude, almost comically so, but apparently the system works."
Yeah, that's about right.
But the biggest question is (Score:2)
Having my phallus drawn in huge proportions even in 16 or even 8bit should offer some relief... no?
How many bits was the Atari 2600? (Score:2)
How many bits would Custer's Revenge [wikipedia.org] count as?
I have a friend who is an amputee (Score:2)
luckily for him his wife is medically well qualified and teaches nursing, and well connected medically, and he is a determined sort of bloke.
"phantom pain" he told me it felt like his not present arm was dipped in hot chip fat, so eventually last year he ended up in an MRI scanner under a doctor who was researching this subject, and they discovered that the pain is in fact not phantom or
Drugs? (Score:2)
Why you can still feel pain in a missing limb (Score:2, Informative)
As it turns out, it's nowhere near that simple. You can't just transect a nerve to make someone with a really damaged body stop feeling pain in that area, and for the same reason, amputees still get sensations from limbs that aren't there and nerves that aren't connected to anything.
The brain doesn't recognize pain based on polling a nerve for pain s
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Whatever. The important thing is that the cessation of phantom pain -- a sensation produced by the mind without input from the body -- is *real*. If gently rubbing thin air makes the mind decide the pain isn't there any more, great -- but that probably wouldn't work for me. But stick my arm in a box and give me a 3D simulation of it, and I bet you anything I'll
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Please explain how the placebo effect works. (Score:2)
All pills have placebo effects, even the ones that are more than just 'sugar'.
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I understand physics enough that I can confidently say there was no physical change to this person's body caused by these actions. The quack performing the act could have held invisible body parts anywhere--could have sprinkled "magic pixie dust" on them--whatever. It doesn't matter what was done, as long as the person being "treated" thought it was doing something.
There is an evil preacher on TV
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Rather presumptuous, don't you think? What do you know of Mrs. Eden's life work, other than the two pages I graciously typed up for the benefit some anonymous slashdotter's father? (who, I might add, has endured 20 years of "mainstream medicine's" failing to address his non-phantom limb problem.)
I understand physics enough that I can confidently say
ah yes, "physics". Would that be Newtonian physics? Newtonian physics + relativity? What about Quantum Mechanics? What happens to you