An immersive virtual reality tool for assessing left and right unilateral spatial neglect.

The reported rate of the occurrence of unilateral spatial neglect (USN) is highly variable likely due to the lack of validity and low sensitivity of classical tools used to assess it. Virtual reality (VR) assessments try to overcome these limitations by proposing immersive and complex environments. Nevertheless, existing VR-based tasks are mostly focused only on near space and lack analysis of psychometric properties and/or clinical validation.

An immersive virtual reality system for ecological assessment of peripersonal and extrapersonal unilateral spatial neglect.

Background: Unilateral spatial neglect (USN) is a debilitating neuropsychological syndrome that often follows brain injury, in particular a stroke affecting the right hemisphere. In current clinical practice, the assessment of neglect is based on old-fashioned paper-and-pencil and behavioral tasks, and sometimes relies on the examiner's subjective judgment. Therefore, there is a need for more exhaustive, objective and ecological assessments of USN.

Pre-frail older adults show improved cognition with StayFitLonger computerized home-based training: a randomized controlled trial.

Multidomain interventions have shown tremendous potential for improving cognition in older adults. It is unclear if multidomain interventions can be delivered remotely and whether remote intervention is beneficial for older adults who are vulnerable or at risk of cognitive decline. In a 26-week multi-site, home-based, double-blind, randomized controlled trial, 120 cognitively healthy older adults (75 robust, 45 pre-frail; age range = 60-94) recruited from Switzerland, Canada, and Belgium were randomized to receive either the StayFitLonger (SFL) computerized multidomain training program or an active control intervention.

Movement-Related Cortical Potentials in Embodied Virtual Mirror Visual Feedback.

Mirror therapy is thought to drive interhemispheric communication, resulting in a balanced activation. We hypothesized that embodied virtual mirror visual feedback (VR-MVF) presented on a computer screen may produce a similar activation. In this proof-of-concept study, we investigated differences in movement-related cortical potentials (MRCPs) in the electroencephalogram (EEG) from different visual feedback of user movements in 1 stroke patient and 13 age-matched adults.

Rationale and protocol of the StayFitLonger study: a multicentre trial to measure efficacy and adherence of a home-based computerised multidomain intervention in healthy older adults.

Background: In older adults, multidomain training that includes physical and cognitive activities has been associated with improvement of physical and cognitive health. The goal of the multisite StayFitLonger study is to assess a home-based computerised training programme, which combines physical exercises, stimulating cognitive activities and virtual coaching.

Methods: One hundred twenty-eight cognitively healthy older adults will be recruited from the community in Switzerland, Canada and Belgium.

Brain-computer interfaces and virtual reality for neurorehabilitation.

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) and virtual reality (VR) are two technologic advances that are changing our way of interacting with the world. BCIs can be used to influence and can serve as a control mechanism in navigation tasks, communication, or other assistive functions. VR can create ad hoc interactive scenarios that involve all our senses, stimulate the brain in a multisensory fashion, and increase the motivation and fun with game-like environments.

Virtual reality experiences, embodiment, videogames and their dimensions in neurorehabilitation.

Background: In the context of stroke rehabilitation, new training approaches mediated by virtual reality and videogames are usually discussed and evaluated together in reviews and meta-analyses. This represents a serious confounding factor that is leading to misleading, inconclusive outcomes in the interest of validating these new solutions.

Main Body: Extending existing definitions of virtual reality, in this paper I put forward the concept of virtual reality experience (VRE), generated by virtual reality systems (VRS; i.

Virtual Reality as a Vehicle to Empower Motor-Cognitive Neurorehabilitation.

In this paper, we advocate the combination of four key ingredients that we believe are necessary to design long-lasting effective treatments for neurorehabilitation: (i) motor-cognitive training, (ii) evidence-based neuroscience principles, in particular those related to body perception, (iii) motivational games, and (iv) empowerment techniques. Then, we propose virtual reality (VR) as the appropriate medium to encompass all the requirements mentioned above. VR is arguably one of the most suitable technologies for neurorehabilitation able to integrate evidence-based neurorehabilitation techniques and neuroscience principles into motivating training approaches that promote self-management by empowering patients to own their recovery process.

Selective distortion of body image by asynchronous visuotactile stimulation.

In the rubber hand illusion (RHI), a rubber hand is felt as being part of one's body. This illusion is evoked by providing synchronous visuotactile stimulation to the fake and real hands. Asynchronous visuotactile stimulation is known not to produce such an illusion of ownership, being commonly used as the control condition.

Increasing upper limb training intensity in chronic stroke using embodied virtual reality: a pilot study.

Background: Technology-mediated neurorehabilitation is suggested to enhance training intensity and therefore functional gains. Here, we used a novel virtual reality (VR) system for task-specific upper extremity training after stroke. The system offers interactive exercises integrating motor priming techniques and embodied visuomotor feedback.

Modulation of pain threshold by virtual body ownership.

Background: Appropriate sensorimotor correlations can result in the illusion of ownership of exogenous body parts. Nevertheless, whether and how the illusion of owning a new body part affects human perception, and in particular pain detection, is still poorly investigated. Recent findings have shown that seeing one's own body is analgesic, but it is not known whether this effect is transferable to newly embodied, but exogenous, body parts.

What Color is My Arm? Changes in Skin Color of an Embodied Virtual Arm Modulates Pain Threshold.

It has been demonstrated that visual inputs can modulate pain. However, the influence of skin color on pain perception is unknown. Red skin is associated to inflamed, hot and more sensitive skin, while blue is associated to cyanotic, cold skin.

Virtual reality for assessment of patients suffering chronic pain: a case study.

The study of body representation and ownership has been a very active research area in recent years. Synchronous multisensory stimulation has been used for the induction of the illusion of ownership over virtual body parts and even full bodies, and it has provided experimental paradigms for the understanding of the brain processing of body representation. However, the illusion of ownership of a virtual body has rarely been used for patient evaluation and diagnosis.

Is my hand connected to my body? The impact of body continuity and arm alignment on the virtual hand illusion.

When a rubber hand is placed on a table top in a plausible position as if part of a person's body, and is stroked synchronously with the person's corresponding hidden real hand, an illusion of ownership over the rubber hand can occur (Botvinick and Cohen 1998). A similar result has been found with respect to a virtual hand portrayed in a virtual environment, a virtual hand illusion (Slater et al. 2008).

A fully immersive set-up for remote interaction and neurorehabilitation based on virtual body ownership.

Although telerehabilitation systems represent one of the most technologically appealing clinical solutions for the immediate future, they still present limitations that prevent their standardization. Here we propose an integrated approach that includes three key and novel factors: (a) fully immersive virtual environments, including virtual body representation and ownership; (b) multimodal interaction with remote people and virtual objects including haptic interaction; and (c) a physical representation of the patient at the hospital through embodiment agents (e.g.

Writing through a robot: a proof of concept for a brain-machine interface.

This paper describes a non-invasive human brain-actuated robotic arm experiment, which allows remote writing. In the local environment, the participant decides on an arbitrary word to transmit. A mental speller interface is then used to select the letters.

Inducing illusory ownership of a virtual body.

We discuss three experiments that investigate how virtual limbs and bodies can come to feel like real limbs and bodies. The first experiment shows that an illusion of ownership of a virtual arm appearing to project out of a person's shoulder can be produced by tactile stimulation on a person's hidden real hand and synchronous stimulation on the seen virtual hand. The second shows that the illusion can be produced by synchronous movement of the person's hidden real hand and a virtual hand.

Inducing a virtual hand ownership illusion through a brain-computer interface.

The apparently stable brain representation of our bodies is easily challenged. We have recently shown that the illusion of ownership of a three-dimensional virtual hand can be evoked through synchronous tactile stimulation of a person's hidden real hand and that of the virtual hand. This reproduces the well-known rubber-hand illusion, but in virtual reality.

Quantification of cognitive-induced brain activity: an efficient method for online applications.

Electrical brain responses during performance of cognitive tasks contain not only evoked, but also induced activity reflecting different processes. These activities are often partially overlapped in time and frequency, so that they are even more difficult to be separated in single-trial. Therefore, online applications based on induced brain activity require specific online processing methods to separate both activities efficiently.

Towards a digital body: the virtual arm illusion.

The integration of the human brain with computers is an interesting new area of applied neuroscience, where one application is replacement of a person's real body by a virtual representation. Here we demonstrate that a virtual limb can be made to feel part of your body if appropriate multisensory correlations are provided. We report an illusion that is invoked through tactile stimulation on a person's hidden real right hand with synchronous virtual visual stimulation on an aligned 3D stereo virtual arm projecting horizontally out of their shoulder.