A Virtual Environment for Post-Stroke Motor Rehabilitation

Current post-stroke motor rehabilitation is unable to significantly benefit the majority of stroke survivors, and is insufficient for the minority who are able to participate. Two components that could stimulate more motor redevelopment are increased motivation during extended therapy sessions (extended practice) and a patient perceiving normal arm movement which they control (actionobservation). We are developing a 3D virtual environment that presents motivating rehabilitation tasks for patients to complete through movement of a virtual arm controlled by their own impaired arm. By creating a virtual environment that incorporates components not found in conventional therapy we hope to improve the extent survivors are able to recover normal arm movement after a stroke.