Mind Over Matter
August 11, 2016 11:20 AM   Subscribe

Virtual Reality and Exoskeleton Help Paraplegics Partially Recover, Study Finds One patient, previously unable to stand due to a spinal cord injury, became capable of walking using a walker, braces and the assistance of a therapist, according to the study. This was all the more surprising because of the severity of the patients' injuries.
posted by Michele in California (5 comments total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
What is the name for something futurama-esque that sounds like total hokum but actually works?
posted by poe at 11:29 AM on August 11, 2016 [1 favorite]


Farnsenfrued.
posted by Twain Device at 11:53 AM on August 11, 2016


It's the same exoskeleton that kicked off the 2014 world cup in Brazil
posted by Tom-B at 12:13 PM on August 11, 2016 [1 favorite]


I recently heard a show (RadioLab?) where they were talking about how a doctor treated phantom limb pain with a mirror so that a patient could use their remaining limb to fool their brain into "relaxing" the phantom limb.

One of the take-aways was that the brain could sort of "forget" that it had control over a limb, like a phantom limb, if it won't respond after a while. However, showing the brain that it should have control causes it to "remember" that it has control.

I wonder if the experiment in this article is taking the phantom mirror idea to the next level.

So, even if the spine has healed, the brain assumes there's no point in bothering with the paralyzed limbs anymore since they haven't responded in so long. And so, the VR, like the phantom limb mirror, "reminds" the brain that it does have control and, thus allows the patient to take advantage of any healing that might have occurred.

What's interesting is that this clearly does not involve any rational system of the brain. Just knowing intellectually that your limb has been gone and so shouldn't be painful, or that your spine might have healed won't reassert control. It has to be some kind of embodied sensory experience that reawakens the connections.
posted by delicious-luncheon at 12:18 PM on August 11, 2016 [4 favorites]




« Older All I remember is her request that I not use her...   |   My Venezuela Nightmare Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments