#EYA2014 - Healthy Life: Neuromotus
The European Youth Award is a pan-European contest to select and honour "Digital Creativy for Social Good!". The seven categories of #EYA2014 concentrate on Europe’s most pressing challenges as defined by the Council of Europe and EU strategy Europe 2020 in 2014. Winner in the category Healthy Life is "Neuromotus".The goal of Neuromotus is to reduce phantom limb pain (PLP), a painful condition affecting 70% of amputees, so as to improve these patients’ quality of life. Traditionally, mirror box therapy and other tools based on the same concept, have been used to alleviate pain, but their efficacy varies greatly. This project targets amputees for whom other PLP treatments have failed. Various virtual environments, including virtual/augmented reality, are controlled by the patient’s phantom limb using muscle (myoelectric) signals from the stump. The patient learns to reactivates areas in the brain related to motor control of the missing limb. First results indicate that this treatment works and clinical trials are following up. A version for home use is being tested.
Ultimately, Neuromotus aims to enable the participation in society of those patients otherwise hindered by chronic phantom limb pain.
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