Flashing Glasses, Trauma Treatment: Can Special Shades Stop Stress Disorder?

(CBS) Can a pair of high-tech glasses help identify and treat people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)?

Quite possibly, suggests a new study.

The glasses - ordinary sunglasses fitted with tiny blinking lights at the corner of each lens - seem to show when people process information with the right side of the brain, the BBC reports. That's something people with PTSD tend to do, and it can lead them to believe that memories are real and reality is a memory.

In the study - conducted by researchers from the Open University in Milton Keynes, England  - subjects wore the glasses as the lights flashed, one after the other.

Researchers then asked each subject which light came on first and were able to tell which side of the brain the subject used most to determine the order of the flashes. People with PTSD tended to process the information using the right side of the brain, while healthy people processed the information with the brain's rational, left side.

Open University researcher Dr. Peter Naish told the BBC that the glasses could be used to "drag people back" into reality if they were using their right brains too much.

Naish presented the research at the recent British Science Association Festival at Aston University in Birmingham.