6 Ways Virtual Reality Is Already Changing The World (No Facebook Required)

One of the most common complaints from amputee victims is the feeling of phantom pain -- feeling the missing limb but not being able to see or control it. Exactly what causes phantom pain is unknown, but it's likely a result of the brain still recognizing the limb even though it's no longer there.

Despite the frequency of this problem, there's no one method of dealing with the pain that works for all amputees.

But an experimental study, detailed in the journal Frontiers for Neuroscience, soothed one man's chronic phantom pain after 48 years of suffering by allowing him to not only see a virtual representation of the limb, but also to control it using electrodes attached to the base of the missing limb that measured muscle movement. The patient reported a drastic improvement in his phantom pain.

The therapy needs to undergo more tests before it can be more widely used in treatment.

Burn patients, as well, can benefit from the use of virtual reality. Suffering through agonizingly painful treatment and therapy (such as the cringe-inducing "skin stretching" therapy) can be eased through a virtual game called "SnowWorld," first used by Loyola University Hospital in Maywood, Ill.

The game puts victims as far from their injuries as mentally possible by letting them shoot snowballs at penguins and snowmen while jamming to Paul Simon's "You Can Call Me Al" (or whatever else they choose to listen to). The treatment helps distract patients by letting them have a little fun while also visually simulating a more comfortable environment for them. MRI results, as well as patient testimony, show that it's succeeding.

VR has been effective in treating soldiers who have returned from war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan and are suffering from PTSD.

In this video, you see how the patient is gradually kept under stress by visiting a virtual representation of a Middle Eastern town. The therapy keeps the patient under reasonable amounts of stress so that he can learn to handle the stress and, hopefully, control it.

While many consider this treatment controversial, proponents say it can be effective for some patients when used in conjunction with other forms of treatment.

PTSD isn't the only psychological disorder VR can help to treat. The Virtual Reality Medical Center says phobias, anxiety disorders, and panic disorders can all be treated as well.

Medical students don't have very many chances at the "error" part of trial-and-error learning. It's a big jump from operating on a human in theory to making the first cut on the operating table. Virtual reality makes "practice makes perfect" more practical.

Recent uses of virtual reality in medicine include 3D simulation of a woman giving birth, which could help doctors prepare game plans for an abnormal pregnancy.

There are also simulators for every type of surgery imaginable, from brain surgery to plastic surgery. As you can see in the video, they look and feel just like they would in the operating room.