Virtual reality device may help train troubled MS walkers
Submitted by art on Mon, 2009-05-18 07:02.
The GaitAid Virtual Walker, a nonprescription virtual-reality device, represents a significant advance for Multiple Sclerosis patients. Developed by MIT-educated Computer Science Professor Yoram Baram, PhD, it consists of a cell-phone-size, lightweight control unit and a set of comfortable high-tech goggles that provide sensory feedback of visual images and sounds in response to the patient's movements.
Worn for practice-walking just 20-30 minutes a day, GaitAid improves walking (sometimes from the first step) and "rewires" the wearer's brain to follow a healthier walking pattern--an effect that often continues even when it isn't being worn.
Upon reading the information
Upon reading the information on the virtual walker's web site, I was struck by a point they made that brains could "rewire" themselves so people having trouble walking might, over time and with practice, be able to reduce or eliminate their difficulty using this device. I've heard of cases where people who were severely impaired by a stroke or injury were able to regain lost functions and I guess this was because of the brain's ability to compensate and "rewire" in some way. I just never thought the same principle might apply to those of us who have gait or balance problems due to MS. If my MS has effectively destroyed those parts of my brain that control my gait, is it indeed possible to train my brain to rewire? Does anybody have any insight on this?
I think there is ample
I think there is ample evidence that it is *possible*, but it is not clear whether it is probable in any given person. But there are many, many cases of people with severe brain/spine injury regaining function through compensatory mechanisms.
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Art Mellor, Accelerated Cure Project for MS, art-msnews -at- acceleratedcure.com