Positive Technology Journal

Virtual reality for the assessment of frontotemporal dementia, a feasibility study.

Disabil Rehabil Assist Technol. 2014 Feb 14;

Authors: Mendez MF, Joshi A, Jimenez E

Abstract
Abstract Purpose: Behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is a non-Alzheimer dementia characterized by difficulty in documenting social-emotional changes. Few investigations have used virtual reality (VR) for documentation and rehabilitation of non-Alzheimer dementias. Methods: Five bvFTD patients underwent insight interviews while immersed in a virtual environment. They were interviewed by avatars, their answers were recorded, and their heart rates were monitored. They were asked to give ratings of their stress immediately at the beginning and at the end of the session. Results: The patients tolerated the head-mounted display and VR without nausea or disorientation, heart rate changes, or worsening stress ratings. Their insight responses were comparable to real world interviews. All bvFTD patients showed their presence in the VR environment as they moved their heads to face and respond to each avatar's questions. The bvFTD patients tended to greater verbal elaboration of answers with larger mean length of utterances compared to their real world interviews. Conclusions: VR is feasible and well-tolerated in bvFTD. These patients may have VR responses comparable to real world performance and they may display a presence in the virtual environment which could even facilitate assessment. Further research can explore the promise of VR for the evaluation and rehabilitation of dementias beyond Alzheimer's disease. Implications for Rehabilitation Clinicians need effective evaluation and rehabilitation strategies for dementia, a neurological syndrome of epidemic proportions and a leading cause of disability. Memory and cognitive deficits are the major disabilities and targets for rehabilitation in Alzheimer's disease, the most common dementia. In contrast, social and emotional disturbances are the major disabilities and targets for rehabilitation in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), an incompletely understood non-Alzheimer dementia. Virtual reality is a technology that holds great promise for the evaluation and rehabilitation of patients with bvFTD and other non-Alzheimer dementias, and preliminary evidence suggests that this technology is feasible in patients with bvFTD.

Evaluation of a virtual reality prospective memory task for use with individuals with severe traumatic brain injury.

Neuropsychol Rehabil. 2014 Feb 24;

Authors: Canty AL, Fleming J, Patterson F, Green HJ, Man D, Shum DH

Abstract
The current study aimed to evaluate the sensitivity, convergent validity and ecological validity of a newly developed virtual reality prospective memory (PM) task (i.e., the Virtual Reality Shopping Task; VRST) for use with individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Thirty individuals with severe TBI and 24 uninjured adults matched on age, gender and education level were administered the VRST, a lexical decision PM task (LDPMT), an index of task-friendliness and a cognitive assessment battery. Significant others rated disruptions in the TBI participants' occupational activities, interpersonal relationships and independent living skills. The performance of the TBI group was significantly poorer than that of controls on event-based PM as measured by the LDPMT, and on time- and event-based PM as measured by the VRST. Performance on the VRST significantly predicted significant others' ratings of patients' occupational activities and independent living skills. The VRST was rated as significantly more reflective of an everyday activity, interesting and was afforded a higher recommendation than the LDPMT. For the TBI group, event and total PM performance on the VRST significantly correlated with performance on measures of mental flexibility and verbal fluency, and total PM performance correlated with verbal memory. These results provide preliminary but promising evidence of the sensitivity, as well as the convergent and ecological validity of the VRST.

Virtual Reality for Sensorimotor Rehabilitation Post-Stroke: The Promise and Current State of the Field.

Curr Phys Med Rehabil Reports. 2013 Mar;1(1):9-20

Authors: Fluet GG, Deutsch JE

Abstract
Developments over the past 2 years in virtual reality (VR) augmented sensorimotor rehabilitation of upper limb use and gait post-stroke were reviewed. Studies were included if they evaluated comparative efficacy between VR and standard of care, and or differences in VR delivery methods; and were CEBM (center for evidence based medicine) level 2 or higher. Eight upper limb and two gait studies were included and described using the following categories hardware (input and output), software (virtual task and feedback and presentation) intervention (progression and dose), and outcomes. Trends in the field were commented on, gaps in knowledge identified, and areas of future research and translation of VR to practice were suggested.

From Wired

Ice cream can be the reward after a successful little league game, a consolation after a bad breakup, or, in the hands of gourmet geeks, a sweet musical instrument. Designers Carla Diana and Emilie Baltz recently whipped up a musical performance where a quartet of players jammed using just a quart of vanilla ice cream and some high-tech cones

In this demo video, artist Alex McLeod shows an environment he designed for Interaxon to use at CES in 2011 interaxon.ca/CES#.

The glasses display the scene in 3D and attaches sensors read users brain-states which control elements of the scene.

3D Thought controlled environment via Interaxon from Alex McLeod on Vimeo.

Reblogged from Medgadget

People unfortunate enough to lose an arm or a leg often feel pain in their missing limb, an unexplained condition known as phantom limb pain.  Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden decided to test whether they can fool the brain into believing the limb is still there and maybe stop the pain.

They attached electrodes to the skin of the remaining arm of an amputee to read the myoelectric signals from the muscles below. Additionally, the arm was tracked in 3D using a marker so that the data could be integrated into a moving generated avatar as well as computer games. The amputee moves the arm of the avatar like he would if his own still existed, while the brain becomes reacquainted with its presence. After repeated use, and playing video games that were controlled using the same myoelectric interface, the person in the study had significant pain reduction after decades of phantom limb pain.

Here’s a video showing off the experimental setup:

Study in Frontiers in Neuroscience: Treatment of phantom limb pain (PLP) based on augmented reality and gaming controlled by myoelectric pattern recognition: a case study of a chronic PLP patient…

Voluntary Out-of-Body Experience: An fMRI Study.

Front Hum Neurosci. 2014;8:70

Authors: Smith AM, Messier C

Abstract
The present single-case study examined functional brain imaging patterns in a participant that reported being able, at will, to produce somatosensory sensations that are experienced as her body moving outside the boundaries of her physical body all the while remaining aware of her unmoving physical body. We found that the brain functional changes associated with the reported extra-corporeal experience (ECE) were different than those observed in motor imagery. Activations were mainly left-sided and involved the left supplementary motor area and supramarginal and posterior superior temporal gyri, the last two overlapping with the temporal parietal junction that has been associated with out-of-body experiences. The cerebellum also showed activation that is consistent with the participant's report of the impression of movement during the ECE. There was also left middle and superior orbital frontal gyri activity, regions often associated with action monitoring. The results suggest that the ECE reported here represents an unusual type of kinesthetic imagery.

Humanlike robot hands controlled by brain activity arouse illusion of ownership in operators.

Sci Rep. 2013;3:2396

Authors: Alimardani M, Nishio S, Ishiguro H

Abstract
Operators of a pair of robotic hands report ownership for those hands when they hold image of a grasp motion and watch the robot perform it. We present a novel body ownership illusion that is induced by merely watching and controlling robot's motions through a brain machine interface. In past studies, body ownership illusions were induced by correlation of such sensory inputs as vision, touch and proprioception. However, in the presented illusion none of the mentioned sensations are integrated except vision. Our results show that during BMI-operation of robotic hands, the interaction between motor commands and visual feedback of the intended motions is adequate to incorporate the non-body limbs into one's own body. Our discussion focuses on the role of proprioceptive information in the mechanism of agency-driven illusions. We believe that our findings will contribute to improvement of tele-presence systems in which operators incorporate BMI-operated robots into their body representations.