Impact of Visual Feedback Configurations in a Task-Oriented Immersive Virtual Reality Mirror Therapy

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Mirror Therapy (MT) is an upper limb rehabilitation technique for stroke patients.
• Recent advancements explore integrating MT into immersive virtual reality (VR) environments.
• Myoelectric control offers a potential method for enhancing VR-based MT.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the feasibility of using myoelectric control within an immersive VR environment for MT.
• To assess the usability and user experience of this novel rehabilitation approach.
• To compare unimanual and bimanual visual feedback configurations for functional tasks.

Main Methods:

• Surface electromyography (sEMG) sensors measured muscle activation for grasping intentions.
• Participants performed tasks in a VR environment with either unimanual or bimanual visual feedback.
• Evaluations included the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire, System Usability Scale, Presence Questionnaire, and an adapted Box and Blocks Test.

Main Results:

• The VR application demonstrated negligible simulator sickness.
• High usability and presence scores indicated feasibility for stroke rehabilitation.
• While immediate learning was observed, no significant performance differences were found between unimanual and bimanual feedback configurations.

Conclusions:

• Myoelectric-controlled VR MT is a feasible and usable tool for stroke rehabilitation.
• The system effectively creates an illusion of cooperative hand function.
• Further research may explore optimizing visual feedback configurations for enhanced therapeutic benefits.