A "virtually minimal" visuo-haptic training of attention in severe traumatic brain injury

This should be able to be applied to stroke survivors so ask your doctor to do that. Which means thousands of individual doctors need to independently do this. Instead of just having a great stroke association take care of it for everyone. It makes so much sense that I'm obviously stupid in not seeing all the stroke associations in the world collaborating on this stuff.
http://www.jneuroengrehab.com/content/10/1/92/abstract

Abstract (provisional)

Background

Although common during the early stages of recovery from severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), attention deficits have been scarcely investigated. Encouraging evidence suggests beneficial effects of attention training in more chronic and higher functioning patients. Interactive technology may provide new opportunities for rehabilitation in inpatients who are earlier in their recovery.

Methods

We designed a "virtually minimal" approach using robot-rendered haptics in a virtual environment to train severely injured inpatients in the early stages of recovery to sustain attention to a visuo-motor task. 21 inpatients with severe TBI completed repetitive reaching toward targets that were both seen and felt. Patients were tested over two consecutive days, experiencing 3 conditions (no haptic feedback, a break-through force, and haptic nudge) in 12 successive, 4-minute blocks.

Results

The interactive visuo-haptic environments were well-tolerated and engaging. Patients typically remained attentive to the task. However, patients exhibited attention loss both before (prolonged initiation) and during (pauses during motion) a movement. Compared to no haptic feedback, patients benefited from haptic nudge cues but not break-through forces. As training progressed, patients increased the number of targets acquired and spontaneously improved from one day to the next.

Conclusions

Interactive visuo-haptic environments could be beneficial for attention training for severe TBI patients in the early stages of recovery and warrants further and more prolonged clinical testing.

The complete article is available as a provisional PDF. The fully formatted PDF and HTML versions are in production.