The Use of Virtual Reality for Post-Stroke Unilateral Spatial Neglect
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The Use of a Newly-Developed Virtual Reality instrument for the Assessment of Post-Stroke Unilateral Spatial Neglect.
IRAS ID
244882
Contact name
Pankaj Sharma
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Research and Development Department - Ashford and St. Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Unilateral spatial neglect (USN) is a common post-stroke visuo-perceptual impairment affecting approximately 30% of all stroke survivors in the acute stage. Chronic USN impacts about 15% of stroke survivors with right hemisphere lesions. USN is defined as the failure to respond, orient or report to stimuli presented on the opposite (contralesional) side of brain damage (the left side for stroke patients with right hemisphere lesions). Lesions in right hemisphere are far more likely to lead to severe and enduring neglect than those in the left hemisphere. This may be because one of the dominant functions of the left hemisphere is language processing (in right handed people), therefore it is less involved with visuo-perceptual function. The two main types of USN are sensory (visual and auditory) and motor neglect, albeit several other subtypes are documented in the literature. Presently, there is no gold-standard assessment for USN due to the heterogeneity of the disorder. Conventional paper-and-pencil assessments including the Rivermead Behaviour Inattention Test (RBIT) are the most commonly used USN assessment in clinical settings, despite well-documented limitations including failure to detect mild to moderate forms of USN. Recently, researchers have been exploring the use of virtual reality (VR) technology both for assessment and rehabilitation. To further improve the use of VR technologies for USN, new VR instruments that are cost-effective and able to assess different types of USN effectively are needed. Therefore, a new fully-immersive VR tool involving street-crossing and vehicles avoidance in a virtual environment has been designed and developed to assess and potentially rehabilitate sensory neglect among stroke patients in the chronic phase of the disease. Building on previous studies conducted in this field, this project aims to assess the ability of a newly-developed VR instrument to detect milder forms of USN that otherwise go undiagnosed on conventional paper-and-pencil assessments.
REC name
West of Scotland REC 3
REC reference
18/WS/0181
Date of REC Opinion
15 Nov 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion