![]() ![]() The team will then study the impact of these combined technologies on pain, opioid use and activity levels.Ĭedars-Sinai’s widespread and longstanding collection and analysis of data from patients’ wearable biosensors, apps and remote-monitoring tools facilitate a large portion of CS-CORE’s research efforts. The goal is to learn how to best target the autonomic nervous system and neuroendocrine system through live, tailored management of the patient’s experience. The grant will explore the use of biofeedback and machine learning during VR interventions to titrate the experience, via cameras and wearable biosensors that monitor pupil dilation, heart rate variability and so on. One such grant, funded by the National Cancer Institute, applies VR-based immersive experiences for hospitalized patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancers. Spiegel and his colleagues in CS-CORE have already obtained numerous grants to grow this area of investigation in earnest. “Now it’s a matter of fine-tuning it-customizing it to optimize a patient’s experience based on their personal health or education needs.” “VR allows us to combine the disciplines of psychology, neurology and physiology to open a whole new world of therapeutic potential,” Spiegel said. While current applications for virtual therapeutics are clearest in pain management, addressing mental health conditions, and training simulations for clinicians, there are many potential directions for it. He also directs the Cedars-Sinai Center for Outcomes Research and Education (CS-CORE), which investigates digital health technologies’ ability to improve outcomes and reduce costs. “MXR is tapping into the brain’s power to modulate the autonomic nervous system, which holds sway over blood pressure, heart rate, airway constriction, digestion and more, with downstream effects on conditions such as chronic pain, immune-mediated disorders and inflammation,” said Spiegel, who has literally written the book on the topic: VRx: How Virtual Therapeutics Will Revolutionize Medicine. It can also blunt physiological arousal, such as increases in heart rate. “We keep learning more about the power of the mind to meaningfully alter physiological functions affecting a wide range of health conditions, from eating disorders and childbirth pain to migraine onset and cognitive function,” said Brennan Spiegel, MD, MSHS, director of Health Services Research for Cedars-Sinai.Ī combined form of mind-body medicine that harnesses the connections between brain signals and physical experiences can result in a meaningful therapeutic effect-even helping patients reduce the need for pain medications after surgery or burn trauma.īrainwave research shows that VR noticeably reduces preperceptual brain activity (called N-1 activity) and perceptual brain activity (called P-3 activity) in response to pain or negative stimulation, resulting in a reduced experience of physical pain.Īlthough data are still emerging, other conceptual ways to explain VR’s powerful capability for providing pain relief include what is essentially distraction-subtracting from the brain’s ability to focus on the pain and any emotions associated with it-as well as a more complex “pain matrix” explanation, in which reduced input to the attention, memory, emotion and sense-based (sight, touch, etc.) perception pathways of pain results in less pain. A growing body of clinical research studies led by Cedars-Sinai scientists and others in virtual reality (VR), augmented or mixed reality, and medical extended reality (MXR) have now challenged the notion of requiring separate approaches for the mind and body. ![]() And recently, the power of the mind to influence the body’s physical experience through biofeedback and cognitive behavioral therapy has gained momentum in the U.S. ![]() In many non-Western traditions, the concept of mind-body interconnectedness has long been endorsed in medical therapies. A key concept for which 17th century philosopher René Descartes is remembered is that of mind-body dualism: the belief that the immaterial mind and the physical body are two entirely distinct entities made of contrasting substances.Īlthough Descartes’ philosophical writings also explored how the two elements can influence each other through causal interaction, the key message that resonated with readers at the time-so much so that it directed the focus of science and medicine for nearly 400 years-was that the body and the mind were separate things, requiring isolated attention and even existing in different realms.
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