A novel immersive virtual reality environment for the motor rehabilitation of stroke patients: A feasibility study

Abstract

We designed and implemented an immersive virtual reality (VR) environment for upper limb rehabilitation, which possesses several notable features. First, by exploiting modern computer graphics its can present a variety of scenarios that make the rehabilitation routines challenging yet enjoyable for patients, thus enhancing their adherence to the therapy. Second, immersion in a virtual 3D space allows the patients to execute tasks that are closely related to everyday gestures, thus enhancing the transfer of the acquired motor skills to real-life routines. Third, in addition to the VR environment, we also developed a client app running on a PC that allows to monitor in real-time and remotely the patients’ routines thus paving the way for telerehabilitation scenarios. Here, we report the results of a feasibility study in a cohort of 16 stroke patients. All our patients showed a high degree of comfort in our immersive VR system and they reported very high scores of ownership and agency in embodiment and satisfaction questionnaires. Furthermore, and notably, we found that behavioral performances in our VR tasks correlated with the patients’ clinical scores (Fugl-Meyer scale) and they could thus be used to assess improvements during the rehabilitation program. While further studies are needed, our results clearly support the feasibility and effectiveness of VR-based motor rehabilitation processes.

I can see my virtual body in a mirror: The role of visual perspective in changing implicit racial attitudes using virtual reality

“…While immersed in the virtual environment, the subjects performed three different tasks ( Fregna et al, 2022 ), with the purpose of acting with and paying attention to their virtual body. Task 1 (Glasses): The task started with four pedestals presented on the table.…”

“…Participants wore a body-tracking suit that provided real-time motion capture, so that they could see their virtual body moving synchronously with their real body. To draw attention to their novel virtual body, we required participants to perform a series of manual tasks ( Fregna et al, 2022 ) during the virtual embodiment.…”

To Reach the Unreachable: Exploring the Potential of VR Hand Redirection for Upper Limb Rehabilitation

“…An essential consideration in the implementation of hand redirection techniques is to ensure that users maintain a strong sense of ownership in the virtual environment [51]. Prior studies have demonstrated that inducing a body ownership illusion during VR rehabilitation can improve the therapeutic effect over the non-embodied rehabilitation in VR [8,24,64]. As such, a key focus in prior research has been on determining the detection thresholds of these offset across various motion axes [20,32,51].…”

The Effects of Immersion and Visuo-Tactile Stimulation on Motor Imagery in Stroke Patients are Related to the Sense of Ownership

“…This suggests that a higher immersion level could induce a stronger brain activity in visual guided MI training. Individual feeling presence in a specific immersive virtual environment (VE) designed for rehabilitation is the unique advantage of VR rehabilitation [13], and virtual body (i.e., the avatar which representing user self) is also presented in recent motor rehabilitation studies [10], [14]- [16]. Sollfrank et al [17] indicated that virtual avatar could be employed to represent the real body in immersive VR, providing end-users with a realistic 3D presentation of limb movements, which seems to help to get a concrete feeling of kinesthetic MI and exerts significant effects on motor cortex activation.…”