Computer games for headache?

What if you could hook wires up to your brain, and control a computer game without moving a muscle?  And what if that game guided your brain to act in ways that slowed down or stopped the migraine chain-reaction, or relaxed sore muscles, or cooled off your headache?

If controlling your computer with your brain sounds like science fiction to you, you’re behind the times.  It’s actually already being done – moving a curser, and switching things on and off, for example.  Even games – controlling a race car, for example.

When you think about it, you’ve probably already heard of parts of this field of research.  Take for example the EEG.  Or, already commonly (and successfully) used for migraine, biofeedback.  Biofeedback trains your brain to combat migraine symptoms, and it often uses computers as an aid.

But the research is about to take an unusual turn.  Some companies have started releasing kits that will allow developers to create games that will be controlled by the brain.  That means, there will soon be money and marketing involved at an unprecedented scale.

Games are already used in hospitals – take the race car for example.  Users control the race car and also learn to control stress.  But now that the technology is getting wider use, you can expect to see the medical applications grow too.  The day may come where you can buy software online that will stop your headache in the early stages.  Stay tuned…