Use the labels in the right column to find what you want. Or you can go thru them one by one, there are only 33,692 posts. Searching is done in the search box in upper left corner. I blog on anything to do with stroke. DO NOT DO ANYTHING SUGGESTED HERE AS I AM NOT MEDICALLY TRAINED, YOUR DOCTOR IS, LISTEN TO THEM. BUT I BET THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO GET YOU 100% RECOVERED. I DON'T EITHER BUT HAVE PLENTY OF QUESTIONS FOR YOUR DOCTOR TO ANSWER.
Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain!trillions and trillions of neuronsthatDIEeach day because there areNOeffective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.
What this blog is for:
My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.
Showing posts with label virtual reality training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label virtual reality training. Show all posts
Once again this should have been totally unnecessary since that public
database of all continually updated stroke research would have this. But
since we have NO stroke leadership and NO stroke strategy we get wastes of time like this all the time.
Earlier research on this which I'm sure your doctor knows nothing of;
Introduction: Those who receive virtual reality training, they train through digital environment. The new modern technology starts from simple computer to virtually designed audio visual aids. This virtual therapy is the system were patient is exposed to harmless objects and equipment’s which boost their confidence level for better performance. There are so many diseases which are treated under virtual therapy, which includes stroke to achieve muscle power with better control and improvement social behavioral aspects. Much research has been done on this subject. For instance, the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, conducted numerous researches and applications for stroke rehabilitation games using virtual reality therapy training. Stroke is a leading cause of long-term disability with up to 76% of people with stroke experiencing a paralysis of the upper limbs at onset. Stroke rehabilitation plays an important role in recovering the lifestyle of stroke survivors. Although, rehabilitation programs can enhance the recovery of upper-limb function, the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions is generally less pronounced in the upper limbs than in the lower limbs; 55–75% of stroke survivors continue toexperience functional limitations in their upper extremities 3–6 months after a stroke. So many of stroke patients suffer permanent disabilities and compromise their quality of life. That kind of patient seriously require virtual rehabilitation program for better quality of life.
Objective: The objective of this study to find out the effectiveness of virtual reality training in the rehabilitation of stroke patients, as they have been shown to be more effective and engaging than conventional rehabilitation therapy.
Methods and Materials: The research has been conducted for duration of 4 months from November 2017 up to February 2018. Systemic review research design has been chosen to conduct this research. An extensive search of books, journals and electronic databases (PubMed, British Journal, Hindawi, Clinical Key) using key words was performed. A list of journals and articles were reviewed and almost all of them supported the effectiveness of virtual reality therapy.
Results: It was then concluded that virtual reality therapy is effective in the rehabilitation of stroke patients when compared to no treatment or conventional treatment. (Wrong comparison, it should have been to other virtual reality systems. Now followup research needs to be done to find the best virtual reality system and write a protocol on it.)
Shirana Asmi Farook, Kshtrashal Singh, Susmitha Govind et al. Impact of Virtual Reality Training in Rehabilitation of Stroke Patients: A Cross Sectional Review. Research and Reviews: Journal of Neuroscience. 2018; 8(1): 16–20p.
Notice that they are limiting the functionality to a subset of full reaching. So if you have spasticity you are screwed. That is being fucking lazy in not tackling the difficult cases. The lazy rot in stroke research reaches around the world. https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13063-017-2377-6
Recovery of voluntary movement is a main rehabilitation goal. Efforts to identify effective upper limb (UL) interventions after stroke have been unsatisfactory. This study includes personalized impairment-based UL reaching training in virtual reality (VR) combined with non-invasive brain stimulation to enhance motor learning. The approach is guided by limiting reaching training to the angular zone in which active control is preserved (“active control zone”) after identification of a “spasticity zone”. Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (a-tDCS) is used to facilitate activation of the affected hemisphere and enhance inter-hemispheric balance. The purpose of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of personalized reaching training, with and without a-tDCS, to increase the range of active elbow control and improve UL function.
Methods
This single-blind randomized controlled trial will take place at four academic rehabilitation centers in Canada, India and Israel. The intervention involves 10 days of personalized VR reaching training with both groups receiving the same intensity of treatment. Participants with sub-acute stroke aged 25 to 80 years with elbow spasticity will be randomized to one of three groups: personalized training (reaching within individually determined active control zones) with a-tDCS (group 1) or sham-tDCS (group 2), or non-personalized training (reaching regardless of active control zones) with a-tDCS (group 3). A baseline assessment will be performed at randomization and two follow-up assessments will occur at the end of the intervention and at 1 month post intervention. Main outcomes are elbow-flexor spatial threshold and ratio of spasticity zone to full elbow-extension range. Secondary outcomes include the Modified Ashworth Scale, Fugl-Meyer Assessment, Streamlined Wolf Motor Function Test and UL kinematics during a standardized reach-to-grasp task.
Discussion
This study will provide evidence on the effectiveness of personalized treatment on spasticity and UL motor ability and feasibility of using low-cost interventions in low-to-middle-income countries.
Trial registration
ClinicalTrials.gov, ID: NCT02725853. Initially registered on 12 January 2016.
Already 10 days old so it should soon be available in your stroke hospital. Unless everyone from the president and board of directors and on down is incompetent. What is your definition of stroke incompetency? https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/890387
Using a new virtual reality approach to rehabilitation training had similar benefits to conventional therapy for arm motor function in patients in the subacute phase of stroke in a new study.
The VIRTUES study, published in the December 12 issue of Neurology, was conducted by a team led by Iris Brunner, PhD, University of Bergen, Norway.
"We had hoped that the virtual reality approach would lead to better functional improvement than the conventional approach as previous studies have suggested the virtual reality training allows more intensive exercise as patients appear to be active for a larger part of each session," Dr Brunner commented to Medscape Medical News.
"But having the same outcome as conventional training is still a good result," she said. "Therapists can supervise several different patients on these devices at the same time in a hospital setting and so should be able to deliver more treatment."
The researchers note that most patients in both groups, even those with initially severe distal paresis, showed substantial increases in arm motor function. "This implies that different training modalities can contribute to improvement and may be applied according to patient preference," they say.
Dr Brunner added: "In future there will be more opportunity for patients to be able to do this virtual reality training at home supported by a remote therapist, which will further increase the amount of therapy able to be delivered. This is the primary aim as we know that more intensive therapy gets better outcomes. This is most crucial in the first few weeks after a stroke — where we have a golden opportunity to exploit the recovery potential. And this virtual reality technology will help us do that."
The current study compared virtual reality training with conventional training for arm function on top of standard rehabilitation.
Dr Brunner explained that standard rehabilitation varies but normally entails some physiotherapy, some occupational therapy, and some speech and language therapy according to individual needs.
Your doctor was correct in not reading or bringing in all those older research trials on VR. No point in being a leader when you can just wait for a review like this and bring in the best. Except that your doctor probably won't read this review either. You'll have to take on the challenge of training your doctor of the finer and newer points of stroke rehab. Good luck with that, hope your doctor is trainable. And all those earlier stroke patients that could have been helped by bringing in VR earlier. Well, so what? http://aip.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.5012226
Stroke
is one of the main causes of disability in the world. In order for
stroke survivors to reduce their disability, they need to go through a
rehabilitation process to regain back their independence and improve
their quality of life. To guide patients in their rehabilitation process
and improve their receptiveness in performing repetitive exercises, a
new rehabilitation training program using Virtual Reality (VR)
technology has been introduced. This has attracted many researchers to
explore more on VR technology as a new tool for stroke patient’s
rehabilitation. This paper presents a review on existing VR systems that
have been developed for stroke rehabilitation. First, recent VR systems
utilized for rehabilitation after stroke are delineated and
categorized. Each of these categories concludes with a discussion on
limitations and any issues that arise from it. Finally, a concise
summary with significant findings and future possibilities in VR
rehabilitation research is presented in table format.
Actually college students did this. Why don't our stroke associations put out a challenge to students to design stroke rehabilitation interventions? Probably much more innovative stuff will come out of that than anyplace else. But we have ossified thinkers in our stroke associations and our boards of directors are ok with such incompetence. I bet this will never make it to a stroke protocol because we have NO stroke leadership pushing good ideas forward. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-06-smarter-patients.html
Inexpensive Wearables and a Smartphone Aid Stroke Rehabilitation. Credit: New York University
A team of students from the NYU Tandon
School of Engineering is using smartphones to improve the arduous and
repetitive process patients must typically undergo to relearn the basic
skills they lose after suffering a stroke.
The centerpieces
are wearable mechatronic devices: a jacket to measure arm placement, a
glove to measure wrist and finger placement and finger joint angles, and
a finger trainer built of hand-friendly, compliant material. All are
connected inexpensively by a smartphone. When a patient performs an
exercise assigned by a physician or physical therapist, microcontrollers
quantify the action—measuring grip strength, for example—and display
that information via the smartphone to both the patient and medical
provider. Rather than mindlessly repeat the exercise, patients engage in
a virtual reality game
that allows them to observe the performance of the unaffected side of
the body and mimic the same performance on the affected side.
Rehabilitation in a clinical setting renders patients dependent on
caregivers and therapists, but using smartphone technology allows stroke
survivors to make great strides within their own homes, boosting morale
and motivating them to continue rehabilitating their stroke-related
disabilities. Because the microcontrollers are attached to easy-to-wear
garments, exercising can be seamlessly integrated into a patient's
day-to-day activities rather than treated as a separate, unwelcome task.
Additionally, the cost-effective system, which the students project
will sell for under $1,000, provides measurement results correlating to
existing research-standard devices selling for eight times that amount.
Elements of low-cost tele-rehabilitation system. Credit: New York University
"Smartphone-integrated stroke
rehabilitation is a marked improvement over the conventional treatment
programs of the past," said NYU Tandon Professor of Mechanical and
Aerospace Engineering Vikram Kapila, who guided the students. "The
medical community acknowledges that while the central nervous system is
highly adaptive and has the ability to regain functions with concerted
effort, a patient must assiduously practice those regained skills. This
makes stroke rehab a long and sometimes trying ordeal. Providing
patients with immediate feedback and placing that feedback in the
context of a virtual reality game that they can use within their own
homes is definitely encouraging and motivational."
In addition to Kapila, who oversees NYU Tandon's Mechatronics Lab,
Preeti Raghavan, M.D., of NYU Langone's Rusk Rehabilitation Ambulatory
Care Center helped Ashwin Raj Kumar and Sai Prasanth Krishnamoorthy, the
students who helped transform the original idea into a working
prototype.
The team recently took third place in BMEidea, the nation's leading
competition for biomedical and bioengineering students. The annual
challenge is sponsored by VentureWell, a nonprofit higher education
network that cultivates revolutionary ideas and promising inventions.
The entries—each of which must pioneer a health-related technology that
addresses a real clinical need—are judged on technical, economic, and
regulatory feasibility; contribution to human health and quality of
life; technological innovation; and potential for commercialization.
Special jacket for stroke rehabilitation. Credit: New York University
"It is an honor to place in a competition as prestigious as BMEidea," said Raj Kumar, a doctoral candidate in mechanical and aerospace engineering. "We are very grateful for the guidance and mentoring of Professor Kapila and Dr. Raghavan."
Added Krishnamoorthy, a master's degree student in mechatronics and
robotics engineering: "We are also excited that our work may one day
make life easier and more rewarding for the many people who suffer from
strokes each year."
"I congratulate the students and their faculty mentors on this
recognition," NYU Tandon Dean Katepalli R. Sreenivasan said. "This is a
testament to both the fine quality of our aspiring engineers and NYU's
commitment to invaluable cross-disciplinary research that allows
technology to be used in service to society."
Next steps for the students include forming a company with the
patent-pending technology and launching a startup at the NYU Tandon
new-business incubators. They are currently refining their prototype and
expect to shortly begin working with several patients from around the
world including their native India.
Training fingers to react properly. Credit: New York University Pictures at link.
I'm quite sure this is damned important to your recovery. If it is not in your hospital in a week, call your hospital president and ask why their stroke department is so f*cking incompetent. The beatings will continue until your hospital is updating stroke protocols on a weekly basis. This is really the responsibility of the presidents of the ASA and NSA to ride herd on stroke hospitals to make sure they are up-to-date on all the latest and are running research to prove the next breakthrough.
Your replies: Matt Lopez, president of the NSA Dr. Mariel Jessup, president of the ASA
1
Laboratory of Synthetic Perceptive, Emotive and Cognitive Systems,
Center of Autonomous Systems and Neurorobotics, Pompeu Fabra, Roc
Boronat, Barcelona, Spain
2
Servei de Medicina Física I Rehabilitació, Hospitals del Mar I
l’Esperanç, Institut Hospital del Mar d’Investigacions Médiques,
Barcelona, Spain
3 Servei de Medicina Física i Rehabilitació, Hospital Universitari Vall dHebron, Barcelona, Spain
4
ICREA, Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Passeig Lluís
Companys, Barcelona, Spain
Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation 2015, 12:50
doi:10.1186/s12984-015-0039-z
The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.jneuroengrehab.com/content/12/1/50
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0),
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any
medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative
Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver
(http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data
made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Abstract
Background
Stroke-induced impairments result from both primary and secondary causes, i.e. damage
to the brain and the acquired non-use of the impaired limbs. Indeed, stroke patients
often under-utilize their paretic limb despite sufficient residual motor function.
We hypothesize that acquired non-use can be overcome by reinforcement-based training
strategies.
Methods
Hemiparetic stroke patients (n = 20, 11 males, 9 right-sided hemiparesis) were asked
to reach targets appearing in either the real world or in a virtual environment. Sessions
were divided into 3 phases: baseline, intervention and washout. During the intervention
the movement of the virtual representation of the patients’ paretic limb was amplified
towards the target.
Results
We found that the probability of using the paretic limb during washout was significantly
higher in comparison to baseline. Patients showed generalization of these results
by displaying a more substantial workspace in real world task. These gains correlated
with changes in effector selection patterns.
Conclusions
The amplification of the movement of the paretic limb in a virtual environment promotes
the use of the paretic limb in stroke patients. Our findings indicate that reinforcement-based
therapies may be an effective approach for counteracting learned non-use and may modulate
motor performance in the real world.
You'll have to have your doctor translate this into a stroke protocol and then ask for it to be put on the web. Since the hand is the hardest to recover your doctor should be jumping for joy to be able to actually provide some useable hand rehabilitation to you. It's only 8 pages long.
Michael Gabrin (mrg61@pitt.edu, Budny 10:00), Sam Phillip (srp70@pitt.edu, Budny 10:00)
Abstract-Many victims of stroke require rehabilitation after their surgical procedure/event. Virtual rehabilitation is the use of virtual reality (VR) combined with traditional physical therapy techniques to create an interactive VR environment for the patient. This paper will explore the three technological elements (smart gloves, Time of Flight (TOF) cameras, and computer software) behind virtual rehabilitation in the recovery of hand function for post-stroke victims, and highlight how the technology creates a medium between computer engineering and bioengineering. The smart gloves and TOF camera are used for hand movement data collection. Although it can be sluggish, the data collected from the Smart Glove is more accurate than the data collected by the TOF camera. To counter the sluggish nature of the gloves, the TOF camera provides a real-time visual representation of the patient’s movements. The computer system analyzes the data from the gloves and the camera to evaluate the level of success achieved by the patient. This paper will explore the technological elements of virtual rehabilitation and their application in the fields of medicine and engineering. It will focus on the computer engineering aspects of these elements. It will begin by giving an overview of the technology as a whole. From there, it will go into further detail about the different elements. It will conclude by discussing the relevance of these components and their application.
Your hospital can just buy the damn article and implement it. They don't even have to think which is a good thing since your hospital hasn't spent any time in the last 30 years figuring out how to get stroke survivors rehabbed better. I expect hundreds of hospitals responding back with the details of their stroke protocols. http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2676700
Stroke survivors are often left with motor disabilities. Virtual
environments for motor therapy are an emerging strategy to motivate,
entertain or engage the rehabilitation patient to the therapy after
stroke. The design of these specialized virtual environments requires to
meet the needs of patients and therapists, which is not a simple task.
To support the design of these applications a number of recommendations
for the developers have been proposed in literature. Here, a taxonomy is
proposed to classify the identified principles, criteria, implications,
usability factors or guidelines on which the recommendations are based.
The taxonomy identifies key factors in the design of virtual
environments for upper limb motor therapy. The taxonomy is organized
into three categories corresponding to different stages of the therapy:
configuration of the exercise, assistance during the execution of the
exercise and management of therapy results. We believe that
agglutinating and organizing design factors into a taxonomy may reduce
development times, facilitate communication between developers and
clinical counterparts and increase chances of therapeutic validity.
I'm sure your doctor and therapists will implement changes to your stroke protocols in the next week based on this. Or maybe you would rather wait 30 years to have your next stroke to make sure that these research findings are finally available to the general stroke population. http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00093/full?
Johanna Wagner1, Teodoro Solis-Escalante1,2, Reinhold Scherer1,3*, Christa Neuper1,4 and Gernot Müller-Putz1
1Laboratory of Brain-Computer Interfaces, Institute for Knowledge Discovery, BioTechMed, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria 2Department of Biomechanical Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands 3Rehabilitation Clinic Judendorf-Strassengel, Judendorf-Strassengel, Austria 4Department of Psychology, BioTechMed, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
Voluntary drive is crucial for motor learning, therefore we are interested in the role that motor planning plays in gait movements. In this study we examined the impact of an interactive Virtual Environment (VE) feedback task on the EEG patterns during robot assisted walking. We compared walking in the VE modality to two control conditions: walking with a visual attention paradigm, in which visual stimuli were unrelated to the motor task; and walking with mirror feedback, in which participants observed their own movements. Eleven healthy participants were considered. Application of independent component analysis to the EEG revealed three independent component clusters in premotor and parietal areas showing increased activity during walking with the adaptive VE training paradigm compared to the control conditions. During the interactive VE walking task spectral power in frequency ranges 8–12, 15–20, and 23–40 Hz was significantly (p ≤ 0.05) decreased. This power decrease is interpreted as a correlate of an active cortical area. Furthermore activity in the premotor cortex revealed gait cycle related modulations significantly different (p ≤ 0.05) from baseline in the frequency range 23–40 Hz during walking. These modulations were significantly (p ≤ 0.05) reduced depending on gait cycle phases in the interactive VE walking task compared to the control conditions. We demonstrate that premotor and parietal areas show increased activity during walking with the adaptive VE training paradigm, when compared to walking with mirror- and movement unrelated feedback. Previous research has related a premotor-parietal network to motor planning and motor intention. We argue that movement related interactive feedback enhances motor planning and motor intention. We hypothesize that this might improve gait recovery during rehabilitation. 1. Introduction
Gait recovery is a major rehabilitation goal in post-stroke therapy. Impairments in normal gait affect balance, stride length, walking speed, obstacle avoidance and endurance. These factors often lead to an increased risk of falls and related injuries (Said et al., 1999). In consequence, affected individuals are not able to react adequately and promptly to demands within their environment, which hinders them in performing activities of daily living autonomously (Duncan et al., 1998).
1Laboratory of Brain-Computer Interfaces,
Institute for Knowledge Discovery, BioTechMed, Graz University of
Technology, Graz, Austria
2Department of Biomechanical Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands
3Rehabilitation Clinic Judendorf-Strassengel, Judendorf-Strassengel, Austria
4Department of Psychology, BioTechMed, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
Voluntary drive is crucial for motor learning, therefore we are
interested in the role that motor planning plays in gait movements. In
this study we examined the impact of an interactive Virtual Environment
(VE) feedback task on the EEG patterns during robot assisted walking. We
compared walking in the VE modality to two control conditions: walking
with a visual attention paradigm, in which visual stimuli were unrelated
to the motor task; and walking with mirror feedback, in which
participants observed their own movements. Eleven healthy participants
were considered. Application of independent component analysis to the
EEG revealed three independent component clusters in premotor and
parietal areas showing increased activity during walking with the
adaptive VE training paradigm compared to the control conditions. During
the interactive VE walking task spectral power in frequency ranges
8–12, 15–20, and 23–40 Hz was significantly (p ≤ 0.05) decreased.
This power decrease is interpreted as a correlate of an active cortical
area. Furthermore activity in the premotor cortex revealed gait cycle
related modulations significantly different (p ≤ 0.05) from baseline in the frequency range 23–40 Hz during walking. These modulations were significantly (p
≤ 0.05) reduced depending on gait cycle phases in the interactive VE
walking task compared to the control conditions. We demonstrate that
premotor and parietal areas show increased activity during walking with
the adaptive VE training paradigm, when compared to walking with mirror-
and movement unrelated feedback. Previous research has related a
premotor-parietal network to motor planning and motor intention. We
argue that movement related interactive feedback enhances motor planning
and motor intention. We hypothesize that this might improve gait
recovery during rehabilitation.
1. Introduction
Gait recovery is a major rehabilitation goal in
post-stroke therapy. Impairments in normal gait affect balance, stride
length, walking speed, obstacle avoidance and endurance. These factors
often lead to an increased risk of falls and related injuries (Said et al., 1999).
In consequence, affected individuals are not able to react adequately
and promptly to demands within their environment, which hinders them in
performing activities of daily living autonomously (Duncan et al., 1998).
- See more at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00093/full?#sthash.0EXaW6KO.dpuf
1Department of Kinesiology, Pennsylvania State University, 29 Recreation Building,University Park, PA 16802, USA 2Department of Neurology, Penn State Hershey Medical Center, 500 University Drive,Hershey, PA 17033, USA
*Corresponding author: Robert L. Sainburg, 29 Recreation Building, University
Park, PA 16802, USA, Tel: +1-814-865-7937; Fax: +1-814-865-1275; E-mail:rls45@psu.edu
Submitted: 09 August 2013 Accepted: 13 September 2013 Published: 15 September 2013
Stroke is one of the leading causes of
motor disability in the United States [1]. Although conventional
therapies involve
different forms of movement practice, technological advances have
allowed the development of interactive therapies using robotics and
other computer based interventions, such as virtual reality and computer
games. These approaches have the advantages of monitoring movement
features on a continuous and incremental basis, as well as providing
feedback to patients about instantaneous performance. To date, such
approaches have
overwhelmingly focused on patients with mild motor deficits [2]. This is
likely related to the fact that motor disabilities reduce a patient’s
ability to interact with such systems, and because patients with more
severe disorders show smaller responses to intervention. In fact, a
recent review by Coupar and colleagues suggested that the level of
initial severity of motor deficits is the most important predictive
factor for recovery of function in the upper limb [3]. Patients with
moderate to severe paresis tend to have limited active range of motion
due to decreased voluntary
control, abnormal synergies, and spasticity. However, movement range can
be systematically increased when the limb is supported against gravity
in patients with moderate to severe paresis [4-6]. We now combine the
approaches of supporting the arm against gravity with a virtual reality
interactive design that is tailored to the patients’ abilities in two
individuals with chronic and severe hemiparesis. The patients’ arms are
supported on a friction free air-sled system to remove the effects of
gravity and friction and optimize range of motion in the horizontal
plane. We present an interactive computer-game system using our custom
virtual reality display system, adjusting the gain of the feedback to
encourage maximal engagement in the game-like reaching task. We then
adjust feedback gains, in accord with improvements in movement
amplitude, in order to encourage continuous adaptation. We evaluate a
4-week training regime by assessing reaching performance during a
3-dimensional unsupported
reaching task, as well as, assessing changes in dysfunction level, using
the Fugl-Meyer Motor Assessment (FMA) protocol [7]. Following a 4-week
training protocol, involving 3 one-hour sessions per week, our results
show significant improvements in movement range and quality during
unsupported reaching and clinically significant improvements in the FMA
of sensorimotor dysfunction.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-12-portable-virtual-reality-rehab-victims.html
A portable virtual reality device improves neuroplasticity for
quicker recovery. It is conquering hospitals around the world. It is
being validated by the CHUV hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland and soon
by the Stanford Stroke Center in the United States.
The Mindmaze platform, developed by a spin-off of
the EPFL, Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, is the first to enable
the rehabilitation and personalized tracking of people affected by a
stroke through fun and stimulating virtual reality exercises. The
patient can practice alone, pause to recover, and resume as many times
as necessary. It is now possible to maximize hours of training per day
to ensure a better recovery. The device, named MindPlayPRO, also allows
clinicians and caregivers to effectively handle several patients
simultaneously. The start-up is set to receive a second Business Angels
investment of half a million Swiss francs after the 2.7 million
collected in 2012. It is also poised to complete a major round of
financing.
Placed at the patient's bedside, the MindPlayPRO system has two
screens on articulated arms. Caregivers can program the machine and
obtain data from a high-resolution camera and track patient progress.
The patient screen shows the 3D avatar of the patient with an exercise
to perform – for example, to hit a target at the middle of a colored
circle. The accuracy required can be adapted according to the patient's
specific challenges. Just as with video games, successfully completing a
task wins points. New cognitive exercises are being developed, which
increase the gameplay along with the sophistication of training. The
results allow both the medical team and the patient to track progress
and adjust tasks accordingly.
Finally we may have something objective for this. http://community.scoop.co.nz/2013/06/uc-experts-looking-to-recover-memory-loss-in-stroke-sufferer/
Press Release – University of Canterbury
University of Canterbury (UC) computer science and software
engineering experts are looking to help recover loss of memory for
people who have suffered strokes.UC experts looking to recover memory loss in stroke sufferers
June 9, 2013
University of Canterbury (UC) computer science and software
engineering experts are looking to help recover loss of memory for
people who have suffered strokes.
People who suffer strokes usually undergo substantial rehabilitation in the hope of restoring their memory to where it was.
Currently, there is not a rehabilitation process to restore people’s memory, only their physical movement.
The UC research team, headed by computer science and software
engineering professor Tanja Mitrovic, has received an $830,000 Marsden
Fund grant to help stroke survivors.
Research team member Dr Moffat Mathews says research shows brain
training could improve functioning and positively affect quality of
life, while current customised rehabilitation was labour-intensive and
expensive.
“Loss of memory – or forgetting to remember – is common among stroke
patients and other patients with brain injury. Unfortunately, this is
one of the main reasons that requires patients to be under 24 hour care,
usually for the rest of their lives, as their quality of life,
particularly in regards to safety, deteriorates with loss of memory.
“Stroke is the third largest killer disease in New Zealand and the
western world. With our ageing population, this issue is becoming more
important, both in terms of quality of life, and in terms of cost to the
patient.
“Researchers have found that the brain can re-wire itself to re-learn
skills lost due to injury. This is what we are trialling in this
project.
“We are using a simple technique called visual mnemonics to help
patients encode cue-to-action associations so that they are better
recalled when the cue is seen later.
“Our end goal is to create an intelligent virtual reality training
environment in which patients can retrain their memory using this
technique when performing basic skills,’’ Dr Mathews says.
“We are hoping to do a similar study with stroke patients soon.
Studies show that even with practice, people are able to increase their
memory with short training sessions,’’ Dr Mathews says.
About 2500 New Zealanders suffer strokes annually and around 10
percent of stroke deaths occur in people under 65. Stroke is the major
cause of serious adult disability in New Zealand. There are an estimated
60,000 stroke survivors in New Zealand. Many are disabled and need
significant daily support.
As well as Professor Mitrovic and Dr Mathews, the research team
includes Professor Stellan Ohlsson from Chicago, Dr Audrey McKinlay from
Monash University in Melbourne and UC postgraduate students Jay Holland
and Jon Rutherford.
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2014 Article
Teodoro Solis-Escalante
Gernot Müller-Putz