Stroke Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Stroke, including details on treatment, recovery, rehabilitation, signs, symptoms. | ||||||||
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A strategy for computer-assisted mental practice in stroke rehabilitation.Gaggioli A, Meneghini A, Morganti F, Alcaniz M, Riva G Applied Technology for Neuro-Psychology Lab, Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan, Italy. andrea.gaggioli@auxologico.it OBJECTIVE: To investigate the technical and clinical viability of using computer-facilitated mental practice in the rehabilitation of upper-limb hemiparesis following stroke. DESIGN: A single-case study. SETTING: Academic-affiliated rehabilitation center. PARTICIPANT: A 46-year-old man with stable motor deficit of the upper right limb following subcortical ischemic stroke. INTERVENTION: Three computer-enhanced mental practice sessions per week at the rehabilitation center, in addition to usual physical therapy. A custom-made virtual reality system equipped with arm-tracking sensors was used to guide mental practice. The system was designed to superimpose over the (unseen) paretic arm a virtual reconstruction of the movement registered from the nonparetic arm. The laboratory intervention was followed by a 1-month home-rehabilitation program, making use of a portable display device. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Pretreatment and posttreatment clinical assessment measures were the upper-extremity scale of the Fugl-Meyer Assessment of Sensorimotor Impairment and the Action Research Arm Test. Performance of the affected arm was evaluated using the healthy arm as the control condition. RESULTS: The patient's paretic limb improved after the first phase of intervention, with modest increases after home rehabilitation, as indicated by functional assessment scores and sensors data. CONCLUSION: Results suggest that technology-supported mental training is a feasible and potentially effective approach for improving motor skills after stroke. Published 3 November 2006 in Neurorehabil Neural Repair, 20(4): 503-7.
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