Virtual reality is finding a surprising application in rehab, as a team of engineers at Arizona State University will soon be using an Oculus Rift headset to help tune prosthetic arms. The problem the investigators are addressing is training the brain to consider a virtual arm, used to develop actual prosthetic interfaces, as part of the body.
There’s a neural feedback loop that links feelings, decisions, and actions taken, and seeing a virtual arm react as though a real one does can go a long way to making programming easier.
