Pain after spinal cord injury occurs in about 65% of cases and many of these report that it is this pain, rather than paralysis that prevents them from functioning at work and other activities (Moseley, 2007). Moseley (2007) had 5 paraplegic men sit in front of a vertical screen with legs hidden by a horizontal board (see Figure below).
Participants experience three 10-min conditions undertaken on separate days. In the first, virtual walking, a video of an actor walking is projected onto the vertical screen. A mirror placed at the top of the screen reflects an image of the top part of the participant’s body. Patients were instructed to move their upper body so that it is synchronized to the walking legs seen on the bottom of the screen. As seen in the figure above, this setup creates the illusion that the participant is walking. To control for distraction, participants also engaged in a guided imagery condition, and were lead through a scenario in which they performing pleasurable activities and were pain free. In the comedy film condition, participants simply watched an animated comedy film. Pain intensity was reported every 30 seconds from prior to and throughout each condition (except the guided imagery condition).
Moseley (2007) found that during virtual walking pain decreased by about 65% from the period 3 mins before the exercise. Pain decreased by about 30% in the guided imagery condition and less than 10% while watching the comedy film. It also took substantially longer for patients to return to pre-activity pain after virtual walking (35 mins) compared to 14 mins after guided imagery and 16 mins after the film. They also perceived decreased foreignness, and less heaviness during virtual walking.
For more info:
Moseley, L. (2007). Using visual illusion to reduce at-level neuropathic pain in paraplegia. Pain, vol. 130 (3) pp. 294-298
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