RESUMEN
Acquired brain injuries (ABI) may display cognitive impairments and lead to long-term disabilities including prospective memory (PM) failure. Prospective memory serves to remember to execute an intended action in the future. PM problems would be a challenge to an ABI patient's successful community reintegration. While retrospective memory (RM) has been extensively studied, treatment programs for prospective memory are rarely reported. The development of a treatment program for PM, which is considered timely, can be cost-effective and appropriate to the patient's environment. A 12-session virtual reality (VR)-based cognitive rehabilitation program was developed using everyday PM activities as training content. 37 subjects were recruited to participate in a pretest-posttest control experimental study to evaluate its treatment effectiveness. Results suggest that significantly better changes were seen in both VR-based and real-life PM outcome measures, related cognitive attributes such as frontal lobe functions and semantic fluency. VR-based training may be well accepted by ABI patients as encouraging improvement has been shown. Large-scale studies of a virtual reality-based prospective memory (VRPM) training program are indicated.
Asunto(s)
Lesiones Encefálicas/rehabilitación , Trastornos de la Memoria/rehabilitación , Memoria Episódica , Interfaz Usuario-Computador , Adulto , Lesiones Encefálicas/psicología , Simulación por Computador , Femenino , Humanos , Inteligencia , Masculino , Trastornos de la Memoria/psicología , Persona de Mediana Edad , Pruebas Neuropsicológicas , Método Simple Ciego , Resultado del TratamientoRESUMEN
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the present study was to test the usability and effectiveness of a newly-developed virtual reality (VR)-based community living skills training program for people with acquired brain injury (ABI). METHOD: A small-sample, pre- and post-quasi experimental design was adopted to initially study the efficacy of the VR-based training program. Its usability was also investigated through interviewing subjects. Outcomes were documented in terms of subjects' skills acquisition, self-efficacy in applying the learnt skills and the transfer ratio of the learnt skills to the real environment. Global cognitive ability and the functional independence level were also assessed. RESULTS: Four subjects with ABI (one traumatic brain injury and three stroke subjects) were successfully recruited and received 10 sessions of VR-based community living skills training. All four subjects showed improvement in skills acquisition and memory performance, while three out of four also showed improvement in self-efficacy and demonstrated transfer of skills to the real environment. Usability was initially supported. CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary results suggested positive changes in ABI subjects. The proposed virtual reality (VR) community living skills training software will be further investigated in a randomized controlled trial.