Rehabilitation of Visual and Perceptual Dysfunction After Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract

The overall aim is to conduct preliminary evaluations of new rehabilitation strategies and new functional assessment methods for homonymous hemianopia (HH) and spatial neglect (SN), disabling visual and cognitive perception conditions that commonly occur as a result of severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and stroke. Both HH and SN prevent detection of objects on the affected side, resulting in unsafe walking and driving. Using realistic tasks in virtual environments representative of everyday mobility challenges we are evaluating a novel optical device expansion prism (EP) glasses - combined with a new computerized perceptual-motor training regimen in helping people with HH and SN detect and avoid obstacles on the affected side. In the first year we have made good progress in developing the training software and preparing the functional assessments, and have started recruitment. Specifically, we (1) obtained all necessary IRB approvals; (2) made excellent progress in developing and testing the training program and training task suite; (3) made excellent progress in preparing the functional assessments in the driving simulator and virtual mall that will be used to evaluate performance without and without the prism glasses before and after training; (4) evaluated mobile eye tracking technologies that will be used for an outdoor walking task; (5) began recruitment; (6) collected pre-pilot data from participants who did not meet the study criteria, and (7) enrolled 3 participants for the main pilot study. Results from the first participant who has completed the protocol are promising showing significantly improved detection rates and collision judgments with the EP-glasses after training.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 26, 2012
Accession Number
ADA560228

Entities

People

  • Alexandra Bowers
  • Eli Peli
  • Gang Luo
  • Jeff Churchill
  • Kevin Houston
  • Robert Goldstein

Organizations

  • Schepens Eye Research Institute

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Brain Injuries
  • Collisions
  • Data Analysis
  • Detection
  • Dysfunction
  • Environment
  • Eye Movements
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Human-Computer Interfaces
  • Human-Machine Interaction
  • Judgment
  • Pilot Studies
  • Reaction Time
  • Rehabilitation
  • Simulators
  • Virtual Reality

Readers

  • Agent-Based Social Robotics and Mobile-Assisted Learning in Virtual Environments.
  • Clinical Trial Research.
  • Vision Science/Vision Psychology/Cognitive Neuroscience.