The aim is to get patients to draw on their meditation training to regain perspective—and stay calm—when a stimulus causes an emotional response. "The idea being to be in the high-stimulus environment for a long period of time, maintaining low psycho-physiological arousal," Wood says. "The person then can take that learning in the therapeutic environment and transport it out or generalize it to day-to-day life."

Other groups such as one at the University of Washington and one at USC, who are working with a modified version of the game Full Spectrum Warrior to help PTSD sufferers, have also benefitted from the $4 million grant. – Jason Chen

A Dose of Virtual Reality [Business Week via Medgadget]