Clinical brain monitoring using neuroimaging and AR devices

Unit(s) involved: U-M School of Dentistry, U-M Center for Human Growth and Development, UM3DLab, Library

Summary: Medical and dental patients may experience fear commonly attributed to physical pain during the visit. By reducing pain perception, patient comfort and future patient compliance may be improved. Patient health may be improved by increasing compliance and promoting increased visits. This can lead to more frequent and timely preventative actions.

The research purpose is to establish quantitative and qualitative data to support current, non-pharmacological methods for reducing pain sensitivity. More specifically, it is to determine if the use of auditory and visual (3D imaging/VR) stimuli related to the regulation of breathing can decrease or modulate pain.

The long-term objective is to increase neurophysiological understanding that will improve patient care. If effective, the novel experimental methods used will help to standardize future pain evaluation techniques.