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Augmented Reality Treatment May Alleviate Phantom Limb Pain
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.
Was that a more-or-less exaggerated version of this sort of technique?
And I my phantom tail wags sometimes. I'm not sure I want that to go away.
I'm curious because my Step Father (long departed) had lost a finger in an industrial accident in the 50s. Curiously he'd complain from time to time that his finger "itched" and it would drive him crazy because obviously it wasn't there. In his case I would have liked to have seen something along these lines that could have provided him some relief because when it happened it did cause a lot of anguish. At the time doctors had suggested hand surgery to shunt the nerves but since he made a living with his hands he didn't want to do that .. "If it ain't broke don't fix it."
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
If you know anyone who has experiences phantom pain, I would suggest Mirror Therapy. Anyone can try it for the cost of a $20 mirror from Wal-Mart. It works. Takes about 4 weeks, 15 minutes per day. You won't have to wait for the Virtual Reality goggles to come to a store near you. This will get you started... http://blog.ted.com/2008/03/21/phantom_limb_pa/
This sounds like a high-tech version of Mirror Therapy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...
Unfortunately, this breakthrough comes on the heels of the death of my grandfather.
He recently lost a limb due to complications arising from Nazi medical experimentation in WWII. The phantom limb issues he was facing were very debilitating.
there's only a single test subject
His name wouldn't happen to be Gilbert Gilgamesh Hamilton, would it?
'How you doing, Dixie?'
'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.'
.
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
Sounds like, in the process of creating the virtual-reality hand model, they've also identified, extracted, and processed EXACTLY the signals necessary to operate a prosthetic.
This gives us the expectation that with the cybernetic prosthetic in place the phantom limb pain may not be a problem, as well.
(Of course that's presuming the summary is correct and it is confirmed.)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Miles just had part of his arm amputated after a slight accident packing up equipment. The former CNN science correspondent is currently working for PBS...
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/25/...
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Now there may be a use for wearing a device over your entire head.
Given the circumstances, you'd think testing would be a bit easier than they're making it out to be. I was asleep in a tent; it was about an hour before sunrise: just enough light to tell that there *was* light, but not to see anything. The sleeping back was a little too short for me -- had one arm at my side, and the other sprawled outward. I tried to pull it back in to the sleeping bag, where it was warm... and it wouldn't come. Which kinda freaked me out. I reached out for it with my other arm -- and it wasn't there. Which really freaked me out. Finally -- assuming I hadn't missed a truly traumatic bear attack in my sleep -- I decided it must still be attached to my body, so with my other arm, I went to my shoulder, and felt on down, only to discover it was completely *under* me, and 100% asleep.
A couple of years later, I read in Scientific American about how scientists were able to simulate phantom limb syndrome by doing essentially the same thing. So with that being said, you'd think simply putting folks' limbs to sleep would really assist in testing this stuff, instead of having a sample size of freaking *one*.
$.02...
In the Ted Video (link below) he claims to have treated phantom limb pain with a mirror. Yes, a chap mirror. No expensive VR.
Ted Talk: Vilayanur Ramachandran
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