A NeuroVR based tool for cognitive assessment and rehabilitation of post-stroke patients: two case studies

Abstract

Neuropsychological disorders are common in stroke patients, ranging from an isolated impairment to impairment in multiple cognitive functions. The cognitive domains affected are in particular executive functions. These comprise planning, organising, conducting, assessing and controlling actions. Dual task abilities, that is the ability to perform successive or simultaneous tasks, are not easy to be evaluated and recovered by traditional paper and pencil methods, due to their ecological and contextual nature. NeuroVR 1.5 is a cost-free virtual reality platform based on open-source software, allowing professionals to easily modify a virtual world, to best suit the needs of the clinical setting.The present study was designed to develop and test a NeuroVR based tool for the rehabilitation of shifting of attention and action planning functions using tasks reminiscent of daily life tasks. We present the virtual environment and the cognitive procedure we developed, discussing two stroke patients case studies, which underwent an integrated neuropsychological and VR assessment.