Article

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of a tabletop virtual-reality
(VR) based upper-limb rehabilitation system (called Elements) for promoting
movement skill in patients with TBI. RESEARCH DESIGN: An ABA case study design
with multiple baselines was employed. Baseline performance in this design is
contrasted against the results during the treatment phase. RESEARCH METHODS:
Three patients with TBI participated in 12 1-hour sessions of VR-based training.
The VR system consisted of a 42-inch tabletop LCD, camera tracking system and
tangible user interface. The system requires participants to move an object to
cued locations while receiving augmented movement feedback to reinforce speed,
trajectory and placement. Upper limb performance was assessed using these three
system-measured variables and standardized tests. Trends in the time-sequence
plots for each patient were assessed by sight inspection of smoothed data and
then by statistical analyses. RESULTS: Participants demonstrated improvements on
movement accuracy, efficiency and bimanual dexterity and mixed improvement on
speed and other measures of movement skill. CONCLUSION: Taken together, the
findings demonstrate that the Elements system shows promise in facilitating motor
learning in these TBI patients. Larger scale trials are now deemed a viable step
in further validating the system.

Langue : ANGLAIS