July, 2000
What would it be like to see inside your own body in real time? If you could see your heart beating could you slow it down or speed it up? If you could see your blood vessels pumping blood to your fingers could you increase the blood flow? Alan Pope, Ph.D., a psychologist who works for NASA, has developed a system that allows you to see a virtual reality picture of your own blood vessels in real time. People with migraine headaches, Raynaud's Disease, peripheral vascular disease, and diabetes can all benefit from increasing blood flow to the periphery.
Biofeedback has been used with all of these disorders in the past. With most biofeedback a person sees a computer screen that gives them a simple form of feedback. As they warm their fingers, or pump more blood into their fingers, a line or a bar on a computer screen goes up. If their fingers cool, or the blood volume per pulse decreases, the line or bar goes down. The brain then uses this extra information to get some control over these processes.
Will virtual reality improve your ability to get these functions under conscious control? Studies are underway at the Eastern Virginia Medical School and the University of Virginia to determine whether such advanced biofeedback is more helpful than traditional biofeedback in a clinical setting. In these studies persons with diabetes and other blood flow disorders are learning to increase blood flow to their finger tips.
Pope worked with Kurt Severance to base the device on NASA's "artificial vision" technology that allows pilots to see a virtual view of what should be outside the cockpit no matter what the actual visibility conditions are. Just as pilots view an artificial picture of the real world outside, patients view an artificial picture of the real world inside. Sensors attached to your fingers measure the volume of blood pumping through your fingers with each pulse and the temperature of your fingers. A computer translates this data into a 3-dimensional representation of red and blue blood vessels that changes size and shape as you manipulate your own blood vessels.
Researchers are optimistic that virtual reality technology will prove to be more easily learned and motivating for patients. The hope is that it will be more effective in teaching these skills by helping patients visualize real-time physiological responses. Expect to see commercial versions of this technology in a few years if research results are positive.
