virtual reality Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Brain Imaging + Virtual Reality Shows Promise for Effectively Managing Cancer Pain

The AHA! Team — Wed, 14 May 2025 05:38:10 +0000

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center via Newswise – Roswell Park-led study takes a significant step toward relief without opioids Highlights Advanced brain imaging gauges pain objectively Virtual-reality relaxation program found clinically effective for pain relief More than 75% of patients who used VR reported a decrease in pain A clinical research study Newswise — BUFFALO, N.Y. — A clinical research study led by Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center has identified a way to objectively measure pain in cancer patients and treat it effectively without opioids. Published in Scientific Reports, the study advances the goal of better managing cancer pain using a non-invasive brain imaging technology and a non-drug treatment that incorporates virtual reality (VR). The project was led by principal investigator Somayeh Besharat Shafiei, PhD, Assistant Professor of Oncology in Roswell Park’s Department of Urology, and co-investigator Oscar de Leon-Casasola, MD, Chief of Pain Medicine at Roswell Park, and included team members from Roswell Park and the University of Guelph in Ontario. A new strategy They propose and assess a new strategy combining brain imaging with the use of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) — a way to gauge the severity of pain using a head cap fitted with optical sensors — and the use of virtual reality to provide pain relief. All participants wore fNIRS head caps to record brain activity by measuring changes in blood oxygenation and deoxygenation. This made it possible for the researchers to identify brain-based biomarkers that distinguish between three levels of pain: no/mild, moderate and severe. Some participants also used VR headsets equipped with software that allowed them to explore realistic underwater scenes. The researchers believe VR may influence a person’s perception of pain by modulating pain-related neural circuits in the regions of the brain. The study enrolled 147 participants, including: 13 healthy patients, who wore fNIRS head caps for 10 minutes 93 cancer patients experiencing pain, who wore fNIRS head caps for 10 minutes 41 cancer patients experiencing pain, who wore fNIRS head caps and VR headsets for a total of 29 minutes —10 minutes before VR, nine minutes during VR and 10 minutes after VR Of the pain-afflicted cancer patients who used the VR program, more than 75% self-reported a decrease in pain — indicating a noticeable improvement well beyond the clinically relevant threshold of 30%. Results of the brain imaging suggest that VR has an effect on both the cognitive and emotional aspects of pain. “This study signals a new era in precision medicine where neuroimaging and digital therapeutics revolutionize pain assessment and treatment,” says Dr. Besharat Shafiei, first author of the study, who notes that an estimated 60-80% of cancer pain is not properly managed. “This combination therapy could reshape clinical pain management protocols, reduce reliance on opioids, and improve the quality of life for millions of cancer patients worldwide.” To read the original article click here.

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Virtual Reality Environments Reveal Neural Signatures of Anxiety Disorders

AHA Publisher — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 08:00:22 +0000

University of Rochester Medical Center via News-Medical – Imagine you are in a meadow picking flowers. You know that some flowers are safe, while others have a bee inside that will sting you. How would you react to this environment and, more importantly, how would your brain react? This is the scene in a virtual-reality environment used by researchers to understand the impact anxiety has on the brain and how brain regions interact with one another to shape behavior. “These findings tell us that anxiety disorders might be more than a lack of awareness of the environment or ignorance of safety, but rather that individuals suffering from an anxiety disorder cannot control their feelings and behavior even if they wanted to,” said Benjamin Suarez-Jimenez, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester and first author of the study published in Communications Biology. “The patients with an anxiety disorder could rationally say – I’m in a safe space – but we found their brain was behaving as if it was not.” Watching Anxiety in the Brain Using fMRI, the researchers observed the brain activity of volunteers with general and social anxiety as they navigated a virtual reality game of picking flowers. Half of the meadow had flowers without bees, the other half had flowers with bees that would sting them – as simulated by a mild electrical stimulation to the hand. Researchers found all study participants could distinguish between the safe and dangerous areas, however, brain scans revealed volunteers with anxiety had increased insula and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex activation – indicating their brain was associating a known safe area to danger or threat. “This is the first time we’ve looked at discrimination learning in this way. We know what brain areas to look at, but this is the first time we show this concert of activity in such a complex ‘real-world-like’ environment. These findings point towards the need for treatments that focus on helping patients take back control of their body.” Benjamin Suarez-Jimenez, Ph.D., assistant professor, Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, University of Rochester The brain differences were the only differences seen in these patients. For example, sweat responses, a proxy for anxiety, which was also measured, failed to reveal any clear differences. Suarez-Jimenez’s Research Understanding the neural mechanisms by which the brain learns about the environment is the focus of Suarez-Jimenez’s research, particularly how the brain predicts what is threatening and what is safe. He uses virtual reality environments to investigate neural signatures of anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). His goal is to understand how people build maps in the brain that are based on experience, and the role of those maps in psychopathologies of stress and anxiety. Expanding Research to Other Disorders “For next steps in this recent research, we still need to clarify if what we found in the brain of these patients is also the case in other disorders, such as PTSD. Understanding the differences and similarities across disorders characterized by deficits in behavioral regulation and feelings in safe environments, can help us create better personalized treatment options.” To read the original article click here.

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Virtual Reality Boosts Brain Rhythms Crucial for Neuroplasticity, Learning and Memory

AHA Publisher — Wed, 14 Jul 2021 00:50:23 +0000

University of California – Los Angeles Health Sciences via EurekAlert – A new discovery in rats shows that the brain responds differently in immersive virtual reality environments versus the real world. The finding could help scientists understand how the brain brings together sensory information from different sources to create a cohesive picture of the world around us. It could also pave the way for “virtual reality therapy” for learning and memory-related disorders ranging including ADHD, Autism, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy and depression. Mayank Mehta, PhD, is the head of W. M. Keck Center for Neurophysics and a professor in the departments of physics, neurology, and electrical and computer engineering at UCLA. His laboratory studies a brain region called the hippocampus, which is a primary driver of learning and memory, including spatial navigation. To understand its role in learning and memory, the hippocampus has been extensively studied in rats as they perform spatial navigation tasks. When rats walk around, neurons in this part of the brain synchronize their electrical activity at a rate of 8 pulses per second, or 8 Hz. This is a type of brain wave known as the “theta rhythm,” and it was discovered more than six decades ago. Disruptions to the theta rhythm also impair the rat’s learning and memory, including the ability to learn and remember a route through a maze. Conversely, a stronger theta rhythm seems to improve the brain’s ability to learn and retain sensory information. Therefore, researchers have speculated that boosting theta waves could improve or restore learning and memory functions. But until now, nobody has been able to strengthen these brain waves. “If that rhythm is so important, can we use a novel approach to make it stronger?” asks Dr. Mehta. “Can we retune it?” Damage to neurons in the hippocampus can interfere with people’s perception of space – “why Alzheimer’s disease patients tend to get lost,” says Dr. Mehta. He says he suspected that the theta rhythm might play a role in this perception. To test that hypothesis, Dr. Mehta and his colleagues invented an immersive virtual reality environment for the rats that was far more immersive than commercially available VR for humans. The VR allows the rats to see their own limbs and shadows, and eliminates certain unsettling sensations such as the delays between head movement and scene changes that can make people dizzy. “Our VR is so compelling,” Dr. Mehta says, “that the rats love to jump in and happily play games.” To measure the rats’ brain rhythms, the researchers placed tiny electrodes, thinner than a human hair, into the brain among the neurons. “It turns out that amazing things happen when the rat is in virtual reality,” says Dr. Mehta. “He goes to the virtual fountain and drinks water, takes a nap there, looks around and explores the space as if it is real.” Remarkably, Dr. Mehta says, the theta rhythm becomes considerably stronger when the rats run in the virtual space in comparison to their natural environment “We were blown away when we saw this huge effect of VR experience on theta rhythm enhancement,” he says. This discovery suggests that the unique rhythm is an indicator of how the brain discerns whether an experience is real or simulated. For instance, as you walk toward a doorway, the input from your eyes will show the doorway getting larger. “How do I know I took a step and it’s not the wall coming at me?” Dr. Mehta says. Answer: The brain uses other information, such as the shift of balance from one foot to the other, the acceleration of your head through space, the relative changes in the positions of other stationary objects around you, and even the feeling of air moving against your face to decide that you are moving, not the wall. On the other hand, a person “moving” through a virtual reality world would experience a very different set of stimuli. “Our brain is constantly doing this, it’s checking all kinds of things,” Dr. Mehta says. The different theta rhythms, he says, may represent different ways that brain regions communicate with each other in the process of gathering all this information. When they looked closer, Dr. Mehta’s team also discovered something else surprising. Neurons consist of a compact cell body and long tendrils, called dendrites, that snake out and form connections with other neurons. When the researchers measured activity in the cell body of a rat brain experiencing virtual reality, they found a different electrical rhythm compared with the rhythm in the dendrites. “That was really mind blowing,” Dr. Mehta said. “Two different parts of the neuron are going in their own rhythm.” The researchers dubbed this never-before-seen rhythm “eta.” It turned out this rhythm was not limited to the virtual reality environment: with extremely precise electrode placement, the researchers were then able to detect the new rhythm in rats walking around a real environment. Being in VR, however, strengthened the eta rhythm – something no other study in the past sixty years has been able to do so strongly, either using pharmacological tools or otherwise, according to Dr. Mehta. Previous studies have shown that the precise frequency of the rhythm makes a big difference to neuroplasticity, he says, just as the precise pitch of a musical instrument is critical for creating the right melody. This opens up an unprecedented opportunity to design VR therapy that can retune and boost brain rhythms and as a way to treat learning and memory disorders. “This is a new technology that has tremendous potential,” he says. “We have entered a new territory.” To read the original article click here.

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Doctors Perform Historic Surgery With Aid of Virtual Reality

AHA Publisher — Wed, 18 Dec 2019 08:00:21 +0000

Abigail Klein Leichman via Israel21c – VR system developed by former Israeli fighter pilots helps neurosurgeons rehearse difficult procedures and show the patient what will happen. It wasn’t going to be easy to remove a brain tumor threatening the life of 2-year-old Ari Ellman of San Francisco. Experts at several US hospitals weren’t even sure it was possible. But Ari’s tumor was removed, piece by piece, in a groundbreaking endonasal surgery lasting nearly 18 hours. Following three more surgeries and six weeks in the pediatric ICU, Ari is “a gorgeous healthy boy who’s loving and living life to the fullest,” according to his mom. It was a historic surgery. Neurosurgeons at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital of Stanford University had never done this procedure on a child so young. They felt confident enough to try the risky surgery because they were able to rehearse it to perfection using the Surgical Theater system developed by former Israel Air Force officers Moty Avisar and Alon Geri. Surgical Theater began in 2010 with the idea of giving neurosurgeons the ability to prepare for specific surgeries the way fighter pilots prepare for specific missions. Today, the virtual reality visualization platform is in 15 leading US hospitals, such as New York University, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, Houston Methodist, George Washington University, Mount Sinai, Stanford and Children’s National Hospital. Some hospitals purchased five or six Surgical Theater systems and are using it also for cardiac and spinal surgery preparation as well as for training student surgeons. “The majority of translating what we knew from flight simulation to surgery was to understand more about what realism means,” Avisar told ISRAEL21c in 2012. “In flight, it’s about the sun and the shadows of trees and mountains. In surgery, it’s more about how light reflects off tissue and how a surgeon understands depths and distances. It took us a while to understand how to translate a simulation into a realistic model. But according to surgeon feedback, we are there. They feel they are in the OR.” Helps Patients and Doctors Visualize the Condition Senior Vice President Eli Moshe tells ISRAEL21c that Surgical Theater is a three-part system. The first part is a Precision VR Viewer that turns conventional black-and-white 2D patient scans (such as CT and MRI images) into an interactive 3D model to help patients and their families better understand the condition and how it will be treated. “They can’t understand anything from looking at a CT; you need training to do that. In our system, the patients can really see the pathology in their brain,” says Moshe. The second part is the Surgical Planner (SRP), which processes the 2D image files into patient-specific VR reconstructions to help neurosurgeons plan the procedure. Using a VR headset, surgeons can “fly” through the digital reconstruction, study problem areas from every angle and develop a personalized surgical approach. The third part of the platform is the SNAP (Surgical Navigation Advanced Platform), which integrates the patient-specific VR surgical plan into the existing surgical navigation system in the operating room. The detailed imaging made possible by the SNAP may lead to much more precise surgical procedures that can protect the brain and may optimize patient outcomes and recovery times, says Moshe. The company has clinical proof demonstrating that the use Surgical Theater led to a change in the original surgical plan in 25% of cases. Saving Baby Reef Pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Levy practiced with Surgical Theater software dozens of times before operating on a newborn named Reef at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego. Reef had bleeding in the brain from an aneurysm before birth. Reef’s mom said it gave her peace of mind to know that Levy “could see everywhere he needed to see” thanks to the system. She and her husband used the Precision VR Viewer to better understand their baby’s condition. The SRP showed Levy that his original idea for approaching the aneurysm could have been fatal. “For an aneurysm this large in a child this small, there are no second chances,” he said. The SRP “makes a very difficult case much easier.” The surgery was a success and Reef is a normal, active little boy. “If I didn’t have the 3D visualizations … it could have been disastrous,” said Levy. Surgical Theater recently began sales in Israel and in Europe. The company has offices in Ohio, California, and Netanya, Israel. To read the original article click here. For more articles from Israel21c click here.

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Flexible Artificial Skin Shows Promise for Real-World Applications

AHA Publisher — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 07:00:16 +0000

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne via News Medical Net – “This is the first time we have developed an entirely soft artificial skin where both sensors and actuators are integrated. This gives us closed-loop control, which means we can accurately and reliably modulate the vibratory stimulation felt by the user. This is ideal for wearable applications, such as for testing a patient’s proprioception in medical applications.” Just like our senses of hearing and vision, our sense of touch plays an important role in how we perceive and interact with the world around us. And technology capable of replicating our sense of touch – also known as haptic feedback – can greatly enhance human-computer and human-robot interfaces for applications such as medical rehabilitation and virtual reality. Scientists at EPFL’s Reconfigurable Robotics Lab (RRL), headed by Jamie Paik, and Laboratory for Soft Bioelectronic Interfaces (LSBI), headed by Stéphanie Lacour at the School of Engineering, have teamed up to develop a soft, flexible artificial skin made of silicone and electrodes. Both labs are part of the NCCR Robotics program. The skin’s system of soft sensors and actuators enable the artificial skin to conform to the exact shape of a wearer’s wrist, for example, and provide haptic feedback in the form of pressure and vibration. Strain sensors continuously measure the skin’s deformation so that the haptic feedback can be adjusted in real time to produce a sense of touch that’s as realistic as possible. The scientists’ work has just been published in Soft Robotics. Haptics Sandwiched Between Silicone Layers The artificial skin contains soft pneumatic actuators that form a membrane layer which can be inflated by pumping air into it. The actuators can be tuned to varying pressures and frequencies (up to 100 Hz, or 100 impulses per second). The skin vibrates when the membrane layer is inflated and deflated rapidly. A sensor layer sits on top of the membrane layer and contains soft electrodes made of a liquid-solid gallium mixture. These electrodes measure the skin’s deformation continuously and send the data to a microcontroller, which uses this feedback to fine-tune the sensation transmitted to the wearer in response to the wearer’s movements and changes in external factors. The artificial skin can be stretched up to four times its original length for up to a million cycles. That makes it particularly attractive for a number of real-world applications. For now the scientists have tested it on users’ fingers and are still making improvements to the technology. “The next step will be to develop a fully wearable prototype for applications in rehabilitation and virtual and augmented reality,” says Sonar. “The prototype will also be tested in neuroscientific studies, where it can be used to stimulate the human body while researchers study dynamic brain activity in magnetic resonance experiments.” To read the original article click here.

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