Virtual Prism Adaptation Therapy: Protocol for Validation in Healthy Adults.

Abstract

Hemispatial neglect is a common impairment after stroke. It is associated with poor functional and social outcomes. Therefore, an adequate intervention is imperative for the successful management of hemispatial neglect. However, the clinical use of various interventions is limited in real clinical practice. Prism adaptation therapy is one of the most evidence-based rehabilitation modalities to treat hemispatial neglect. To overcome any possible shortcoming that may occur with prism therapy, we developed a new system using immersive virtual reality and depth-sensing camera to create a virtual prism adaptation therapy (VPAT). To validate the VPAT system, we designed an experimental protocol investigating the behavioral errors and changes in cortical activation via the VPAT system. Cortical activation was measured by functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The experiment consisted of four phases. All four included clicking, pointing or rest applied to right-handed healthy people. Clicking versus pointing was used for investigating the cortical region related with the gross motor task, and pointing with VPAT versus pointing without VPAT was used for investigating the cortical region associated with visuospatial perception. The preliminary results from four healthy participants showed that pointing errors by the VPAT system was similar to the conventional prism adaptation therapy. Further analysis with more participants and fNIRS data, as well as a study in patients with stroke may be required.