TY - JOUR
T1 - Development and Testing of a Virtual Reality Mirror Therapy System for the Sensorimotor Performance of Upper Extremity
T2 - A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
AU - Lin, Che Wei
AU - Kuo, Li Chieh
AU - Lin, Yu Ching
AU - Su, Fong Chin
AU - Lin, Yu An
AU - Hsu, Hsiu Yun
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported in part by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, under Grant 106-2314-B-006-049-MY2 and in part by the National Cheng Kung University-Show Chwan Health Care System R&D Project, NCKU-SCMH R&D Project, under Grant NCKUSCMH 10801/ 10711 / 10614.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2013 IEEE.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Mirror therapy (MT) has been proposed as an essential component of upper limb neuro-rehabilitation, using mirror illusion of the unaffected hand movement and superimposing it on the affected hand to improve neuroplasticity for improving motor recovery in stroke patients. In this paper, we developed a virtual reality mirror therapy (VRMT) system, and examined the performance of the proposed VRMT system. The VRMT system consists of a motion-tracking device, a VR goggle, and a VRMT software. Young, healthy participants, and stroke patients with mild-to-severe hemiparesis were recruited in this study, to validate the effectiveness of the proposed VRMT system. Experimental results based on the pinch-holding-up activity (PHUA) test revealed a significant effect on the precision pinch performance of young-healthy participants receiving VRMT, whereas traditional MT could not improve the precision pinch performance in young-healthy participants (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Z=-2.693, p=0.007). For patients having suffered a stroke and being treated with VRMT, significant beneficial effects examined by mixed effect model were found on the total score of FMA (p=0.033) and hand part of FMA (p=0.008). The findings in this study indicate that the VRMT system has a potentially positive effects on the sensorimotor performance of hands in healthy participants. In addition, add-on effect of VR to MT provides beneficial effects on motor function of the upper extremity in chronic stroke patients.
AB - Mirror therapy (MT) has been proposed as an essential component of upper limb neuro-rehabilitation, using mirror illusion of the unaffected hand movement and superimposing it on the affected hand to improve neuroplasticity for improving motor recovery in stroke patients. In this paper, we developed a virtual reality mirror therapy (VRMT) system, and examined the performance of the proposed VRMT system. The VRMT system consists of a motion-tracking device, a VR goggle, and a VRMT software. Young, healthy participants, and stroke patients with mild-to-severe hemiparesis were recruited in this study, to validate the effectiveness of the proposed VRMT system. Experimental results based on the pinch-holding-up activity (PHUA) test revealed a significant effect on the precision pinch performance of young-healthy participants receiving VRMT, whereas traditional MT could not improve the precision pinch performance in young-healthy participants (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Z=-2.693, p=0.007). For patients having suffered a stroke and being treated with VRMT, significant beneficial effects examined by mixed effect model were found on the total score of FMA (p=0.033) and hand part of FMA (p=0.008). The findings in this study indicate that the VRMT system has a potentially positive effects on the sensorimotor performance of hands in healthy participants. In addition, add-on effect of VR to MT provides beneficial effects on motor function of the upper extremity in chronic stroke patients.
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U2 - 10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3050656
DO - 10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3050656
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85099576567
SN - 2169-3536
VL - 9
SP - 14725
EP - 14734
JO - IEEE Access
JF - IEEE Access
M1 - 9319666
ER -