Seeing is believing: using perceptual trickery to treat pain
Virtual reality, illusions, and phantom limbs. What it’s all got to do with pain? Quite a lot according to Associate Professor Tasha Stanton.
An expert in pain science, Tasha will shed light on bioplasticity – the malleability of the inbuilt systems in our body that are designed to protect us – and how we can use it to overcome injuries and treat chronic pain.
We are bioplastic. Our systems update all the time – new cells grow and signals from our brain change constantly. In this way, we are a ‘new’ person every couple of days.
New research shows we can use the very systems that alert our brain to danger and cause us to feel pain, to reduce the amount of pain we experience. This lecture will explore emerging techniques that combine cutting-edge virtual reality and old-fashioned illusions and trickery to help everyone – from elite athletes recovering from injury to people suffering from osteoarthritis – to live pain free.
Bio
Associate Professor Tasha Stanton is a clinical pain neuroscientist working with the Body in Mind Research Group out of the University of South Australia. She studies the role that the brain plays in pain and her work specifically explores how information from numerous sources can shape our perception of our body and of our environment. Her work explores multisensory illusions using virtual and augmented reality.
Tasha has a Masters in Rehabilitation Science from the University of Alberta and earned her PhD at the University of Sydney, studying clinical prediction rules for back pain. She is currently a National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Career Development Fellow (2019-2021).
Event
8:30pm @Cue Bar, 1st Floor, 140 - 144 The Parade, Norwood SA 5067
Also speaking at this location at 6:30pm are Trish Hansen & Alex Bruhn
