COMPARISON OF BRAIN ACTIVATION AND FUNCTIONAL OUTCOMES BETWEEN MANUAL AND VIRTUAL REALITY MODALITIES: A CASE STUDY

Virtual reality (VR) as a neuro-rehabilitation tool has been reported to increase functional task performance for individuals with stroke1,2. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a brain imaging technique that detects changes in cortical blood oxygenation and can be used to measure functional task improvements. Functional improvements can also be measured using the Box and Blocks test (BBT), which is a clinical measure of total upper extremity dexterity. The purpose of this study was to compare motor cortex activation and functional outcomes between VR and manual BBT. We hypothesized that there would be no difference in BBT score or motor cortex activation between VR and manual conditions. A case study was performed with a participant with chronic stroke (age: 55years, affected hand: left) who performed the BBT manually using their less-affected and affected hands for three trials each. The BBT was then repeated in VR using each hand while under observation with fNIRS. Four pair-tests were calculated comparing the manual to VR BBT conditions for each hand using brain activation data and BBT scores. The participant exhibited no statistically significant difference in motor cortex activation between the VR and manual BBT conditions for both the affected (p=0.2925) and less-affected (p=0.2155). There was also no significant difference in BBT scores between the VR and manual BBT conditions for the affected (difference: 0 blocks) and less-affected (difference: 2 blocks) hands. These results indicate that VR may provide a comparable neuromotor response to a physical-space task. REFERENCES Yin CW, et al. Clin Rehabil. 28, 1107-1114, 2014. Cameirao MS et al. Stroke. 43, 2720-2728, 2016