Did the virtual reality add more recovery than all this earlier research on anodal tDCS? If you didn't figure that out, you did useless research, and your mentors and senior researchers aren't any good!
Anodal tDCS and virtual reality gait rehabilitation in individuals with chronic stroke: A case series report
- University of Rhode Island, Kingston, United States
Background:
Stroke is a principal cause of long-term disability worldwide, significantly impairing motor function, including gait and mobility. Conventional physical therapy, primarily focusing on repetitive, task-specific exercises, often falls short in addressing the complex rehabilitative needs of stroke survivors. Emerging technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) have shown potential to enhance neuroplasticity and functional recovery, suggesting that their combined use could offer a novel pathway for stroke rehabilitation.
Objective:
This study evaluated the efficacy of an integrated VR and tDCS treadmill training protocol in improving gait and mobility outcomes among individuals with chronic stroke.
Methods:
Five chronic stroke patients were recruited for this study. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either anodal tDCS or sham stimulation in conjunction with VR treadmill training. The anodal stimulation was targeted at the ipsilesional motor cortex, specifically over the primary motor cortex (M1) area corresponding to the C3/C4 locations in the 10-20 EEG system. The intervention consisted of ten 30-minute sessions over two weeks. Clinical assessments, including the Dynamic Gait Index (DGI), Berg Balance Scale (BBS), 10-meter Walk Test (10MWT), and the Timed Up and Go Test (TUG) were conducted pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, and at a two-week follow-up.
Results:
All participants demonstrated improvements in the clinical measures post-intervention, irrespective of whether they received anodal tDCS or sham stimulation. Notably, clinically significant improvements, defined by an improvement greater or equal to the established Minimal Clinically Important Differences (MCIDs), were observed in DGI scores for four participants, suggesting enhanced gait functionality.The combined VR and tDCS interventions promise to improve gait and mobility in chronic stroke survivors. While the observed improvements were not distinctly attributed to tDCS, the role of VR training was notably beneficial. These preliminary findings underscore the potential of integrating emerging technologies in stroke rehabilitation and highlight the need for future research with larger cohorts to explore the distinct contributions of each modality and validate this integrative approach.
Keywords: Stroke, virtual reality, tDCS, Gait, Rehabilitation
Received: 31 Aug 2024; Accepted: 09 Jan 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Marke, Oliveira Barbosa, Napoli and D’Andrea. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Susan E D’Andrea, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, United States
No comments:
Post a Comment