Virtual Reality Reduces Phantom Pain in Paraplegics

Author: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
Published: 30 Oct 2017 - Updated: 30 Jun 2026
Publication Details: Peer-Reviewed | Informative

Table of Contents:
Synopsis - Definition - Introduction - Main - Insights, Updates - Related Content

Synopsis: This research, a peer-reviewed study led by neuroscientist Olaf Blanke and his team at EPFL in Switzerland and published in Neurology, shows that phantom body pain in paraplegics can be reduced by creating a bodily illusion through virtual reality. Using a camera, VR goggles, and a pair of dummy legs, the team tapped a patient's back while the patient watched the dummy legs being tapped, producing the convincing sensation that the touch came from the paralyzed legs - and patients reported their pain diminished. The findings matter to people with spinal cord injuries, clinicians, and researchers because this neuropathic pain is real yet resistant to drug therapy, and the work points toward a non-pharmacological, at-home digital therapy that could ease suffering without reliance on medication.*

At a Glance

• 1 - The illusion takes about a minute of simultaneous tapping to take hold, as the visual stimulus comes to dominate over the tactile one.
• 2 - Paraplegics often feel pain that seems to originate in legs they can no longer otherwise feel, a sensation caused by the spinal cord lesion itself.
• 3 - Building on these results, the team is developing virtual reality technology that automates the visuo-tactile stimulation so people with spinal cord injury and other chronic pain can use it regularly at home.

Topic Definition: Virtual Reality Pain Management

Virtual reality pain management is the use of immersive digital technology to influence how the brain perceives and processes pain, offering a non-pharmacological alternative or complement to medication. By presenting the user with carefully crafted visual and sensory experiences - such as distracting environments or illusions that alter the felt position and sensation of the body - virtual reality can reduce the intensity of both acute and chronic pain. The approach has been studied in settings ranging from burn care and dental procedures to neuropathic conditions like phantom pain after spinal cord injury, where restoring a sense of touch through illusion can lessen suffering that conventional drug therapy fails to relieve.

Introduction

In breakthrough research led by neuroscientist Olaf Blanke and his team at EPFL, Switzerland, the scientists show that phantom body pain can be reduced in paraplegics by creating a bodily illusion with the help of virtual reality. The results are published in Neurology.

"We managed to provoke an illusion: the illusion that the subject's legs were being lightly tapped, when in fact the subject was actually being tapped on the back, above the spinal cord lesion," explains Blanke, lead author of the study and holder of the Foundation Bertarelli Chair in Cognitive Neuroprosthetics. "When we did this, the subjects also reported that their pain had diminished."

Main Content

Paraplegics suffer from no longer feeling their legs again, but the condition is often accompanied by neuropathic pain due to the spinal cord lesion. The patient feels pain originating from the legs, even though nothing else can be felt below the lesion. The sensation of pain is real and yet completely resistant to drug therapy. Now, virtual reality may be the key to providing pain relief for this type of pain, and the solution comes from restoring a sense of touch.

"We tapped the back of the subject near the shoulders and the subject experienced the illusion that the tapping originated from the paralyzed legs," explains Polona Pozeg, co-author of the study and now neuroscientist at the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV). "This is because the subject also received visual stimuli of dummy legs being tapped, viewed through the virtual reality headset, so the subject saw them immersively as his or her own legs."

The experimental setup involves a pair of dummy legs, a camera, virtual reality goggles and two rods. The legs are filmed by a camera. In real-time, the video is relayed into virtual reality goggles worn by the paraplegic patient. The subject sees the dummy legs viewed from above, as if looking down on one's owns legs. With this setup in place, the scientist taps the patient's back with one rod while simultaneously tapping the dummy legs with the other.

The subject therefore receives two stimuli, one tactile on the back, the other visual from the virutal reality display. Despite being consciously aware of being tapped on the back, the subject still begins to feel as though the tapping comes from the paralyzed legs.

"It takes about a minutes of simultaneously tapping for the illusion to take place," says Blanke. "The tapping on the back gets translated onto the legs because the visual stimulus dominates over the tactile one."

The research pushes the limits of how virtual reality can be used to implement conflicting stimuli, with the aim of ultimately manipulating the brain in how it experiences the body for therapeutic reasons.

Based on these findings, the researchers are currently developing virtual reality technology that automatizes visuo-tactile stimulations - an immersive digital therapy - that individuals with spinal cord injury and other chronic pain conditions for regular use at home.

Insights, Analysis, and Developments

Attribution/Source(s): This peer reviewed publication was selected for publishing by the editors of Disabled World (DW) due to its relevance to the disability community. Originally authored by Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne and published on 30 Oct 2017, this content may have been edited for style, clarity, or brevity.

* Editorial additions by Ian C. Langtree.