Virtual environments for the rehabilitation of disorders of attention and movement.

The incidence of perceptual-motor disorders arising from stroke is steadily increasing in the population of Europe and USA. This chapter sought to define the role that virtual environments may have in designing remedial programmes for rehabilitation following stroke in the areas of attentional retraining and the reacquisition of perceptuo-motor skills. Principles for the structure of guided learning were identified and emphasis placed on the need to identify when and how virtual environments technology can introduce added value to the therapy situation.