Full Spectrum Warrior Used to Treat PTSS

We’ve talked a lot about how the military uses video games for training and PR purposes. Here’s an interesting video over at The New Yorker about how a popular military video game is being used to treat post traumatic stress syndrome for soldiers returning from battle. The game is basically a modification of Full Spectrum Warrior, called Virtual Iraq. The basic idea with immersion therapy and other such treatments is to provide repeated exposure to the patient so that the negative reflexes become muted. I was particularly interested to note that smells can be introduced to the regimen, including diesel fumes. The olfactory glands are the biggest in the brain, and can trigger strong reactions and memories. The work is spearheaded by Albert “Skip” Rizzo over at USC.