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Sunday, March 1st, 2015

Virtual Reality Can Make You Forget Pain

Author:     Sue Thomas
Source:     Livescience
Publication Date:     February 28, 2015 12:24am ET
Link: Virtual Reality Can Make You Forget Pain
Stephan:   Here is potentially very good news for people in great pain, and it also reveals a little studied example of psychophysical self-regulation. I believe that virtual reality will play an increasing role in the future, and not just in medicine. As air travel becomes more problematic (until it converts from carbon energy propulsion) there will be pressure to limit flying, and meetings will increasingly take place in virtual space, a domain so sensorially compelling that one will feel that the locus of their consciousness is in the meeting, and not where their body is.
Virtual reality mask. No pain no game. Credit: Sergey Galyonkin

Virtual reality mask. No pain no game.
Credit: Sergey Galyonkin

A couple of weeks from now I will be in hospital undergoing a knee replacement. It will be the most extreme surgery I’ve ever experienced and I’m pretty scared. I’ve been told that I can expect to endure excruciating pain afterwards but I won’t be allowed to lie in bed feeling sorry for myself. In order to ensure a good recovery I have to get up and exercise the new joint numerous times a day. Make no mistake, this is going to hurt.

It may not be too long, however, until patients like me will be able to ward off their agonies simply by playing virtual reality games. This surprising advance is already being tested, but the premise behind it is not new.

As neuroscientist David Linden recently explained on NPR, the brain has more control over pain than we might at first imagine. It can say “hey that’s interesting, turn up the volume on this pain information […]

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