Clinical Research Directory

Comparing Prism Adaptation Training With and Without TENS to Minimize Unilateral Spatial Neglect

This study aims to find out if doing two treatments together-Prism Adaptation Therapy (PAT) and Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS)-will help people who have had a stroke pay better attention to one side of their body, better than just doing PAT by itself. In addition to understanding how the intervention improves function the investigators would like to see if things like how old someone is, how long ago their stroke happened, where their brain was damaged, or how bad the neglect is, affect how well the treatment works. To measure if the interventions make a difference the following outcome measures will be used. Catherine Bergego Scale (CBS): This is a test to see how severe someone's neglect is. Trained therapists use 10 simple tasks to check if a person is ignoring the left or right side. Wolf Motor Function Test (WMFT): This test checks how well a stroke survivor can move their arm. It helps the therapists see if the treatments improve movement and reaction time People can join the study if they had a stroke, score at least "1" on the Catherine Bergego Scale, and they can understand and agree to take part in the study. People cannot join the study if they have had more than two strokes, have or had seizures, or have a serious mental illness like schizophrenia, or have cancer in the arm that was affected by the stroke, they have a pacemaker or defibrillator in their body, and if they can't feel their arm on the side affected by the stroke Once the study is done, the main results will be shared with the therapists who work at the NeuroRehab and Balance Center, like the physical, speech, and occupational therapists.

Neglect Treatment by Prism Adaptation in the Acute Phase

This project aims at unveiling the beneficial effects of prism adaptation as early rehabilitation technique to treat unilateral spatial neglect in the acute phase after a brain damage. This syndrome, frequent and very invalidating for daily life activities after a brain damage, is a cognitive disorder of lack of attention towards a part of the space. Patients at a first event brain injury hospitalized into the Neurology and Neurosurgery Departments and affected by spatial neglect will undergo to a protocol of five consecutive rehabilitation treatments, being assigned to the experimental (prisms) or control groups (neutral prisms). The effectiveness of the treatment will be assessed with cognitive, functional and motor-related measures, as well as a follow up 3 months later. These results can have a strong impact on the long-term functional outcome of these patients.

Immersive Virtual Reality Treatment for Unilateral Spatial Neglect

Unilateral Spatial Neglect (USN) is a relatively common neuropsychological syndrome following stroke. It is characterized by difficulties in detecting, orienting and identifying events located in the hemispace contralateral to a brain lesion, unrelated to a primary motor or sensory disorder. Numerous methods have been developed for the rehabilitation of this syndrome. However, limitations in terms of efficacy are highlighted. These limitations may be linked to the fact that these methods are restricted to certain sensory modalities, thus failing to take into account the heterogeneity of the syndrome. Moreover, some patients' adherence to rehabilitation programs can also be complicated by motivational difficulties. Immersive Virtual Reality could help overcome these limitations. Indeed, it enables the introduction of new sensory modalities, notably auditory, to support a better apprehension of space. The main objective of this study is to determine the efficacy of an immersive virtual reality rehabilitation protocol based on musical practice in patients suffering from USN. This study also aims to explore the benefits of this rehabilitation protocol on patients' daily lives, as well as to explore the influence of patients' mood and motivation on the benefits of the immersive virtual reality rehabilitation protocol. To achieve these goals, patients will benefit from immersive virtual reality rehabilitation based on music practice. This rehabilitation will be compared to conventional USN rehabilitation. To this end, patients will be divided into two groups: classical rehabilitation only or classical rehabilitation and immersive virtual reality in parallel. Each patient will be randomly assigned to one of the two groups for a period of 2 weeks. Pre- and post-rehabilitation assessments will be provided.