Mirror Box VR

Mirror Therapy - Virtual Reality - Mirror Box

Virtual Reality Mirror Box:

A mirror box is a box with two mirrors in the center (one facing each way), invented by Vilayanur S. Ramachandran to help alleviate phantom limb pain, in which patients feel they still have a limb after having it amputated. The wider use of mirrors in this way is known as mirror therapy or mirror visual feedback (MVF).

In a mirror box the patient places the good limb into one side, and the residual limb into the other. The patient then looks into the mirror on the side with the good limb and makes "mirror symmetric" movements, as a symphony conductor might, or as we do when we clap our hands. Because the subject is seeing the reflected image of the good hand moving, it appears as if the phantom limb is also moving. Through the use of this artificial visual feedback it becomes possible for the patient to "move" the phantom limb, and to unclench it from potentially painful positions.