Losing a limb is obviously incredibly traumatic; not only do you have to cope with the fact that, hey, you’re missing a body part, but you also suffer from phantom limb pains that can be just as horrifying. Luckily, researchers in Gothenburg, Sweden have developed a virtual reality solution for that pain.
Using virtual reality games to simulate the use of the missing limb, PhD candidate Max Ortiz-Catalan and researchers at Chalmers University of Technology and Sahlgrenska University Hospital were able to reduce patients’ phantom limb pain significantly. So significantly, in fact, that after ten solid weeks of practice in-game, the patients even reported feeling completely pain-free for hours.
Not bad, science. Not bad.
(via Laughing Squid, image via YouTube)
- Seriously though you can Zelda in first-person with the Oculus Rift
- Which can also be used to control space robots
- Or to defuse virtual bombs
