VR eye-tracking may personalize chronic pain treatment
Researchers at the University of East Anglia are testing whether eye movements and pupil changes during virtual reality tasks can reveal mental effort in people with chronic pain. The aim is for future headsets to adjust immersive therapy automatically when a patient becomes overloaded. The study was published in Scientific Reports and may support drug-free, individualized pain care.
The University of East Anglia team tested 84 adults, half with chronic musculoskeletal conditions such as arthritis or fibromyalgia. Wearing eye-tracking VR headsets, participants performed increasingly difficult memory tasks.
As workload rose, pupils enlarged and blinking became more frequent. AI models reading these patterns separated low from high mental effort with up to 88% accuracy in healthy volunteers; participants reported little motion sickness or discomfort. The work appears in Scientific Reports.
If validated outside the lab, adaptive VR could offer a drug-free option for some of the many people living with persistent pain. Clinicians and patients might use automatic adjustments to keep immersive therapy engaging without overwhelming users, potentially improving access to individualized care. Benefits would likely depend on cost, usability, and whether these eye-based signals reliably track real-world pain and effort.