Penn P R, Rose F D, Johnson D A
School of Psychology, University of East London, Stratford, London, UK.
Dev Neurorehabil. 2009 Feb;12(1):32-43. doi: 10.1080/17518420902739365.
A frequent consequence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a significant reduction in patients' cerebral activation/arousal, which clinicians agree is not conducive to optimal rehabilitation outcomes. In the context of paediatric rehabilitation, sustained periods of inactivity are particularly undesirable, as contemporary research has increasingly called into question the Kennard principle that youth inherently promotes greater neural plasticity and functional recovery following TBI. Therefore, the onus to create rehabilitation conditions most conducive to harnessing plasticity falls squarely on the shoulders of clinicians. Having noted the efficacy of environmental enrichment in promoting neural plasticity and positive functional outcomes in the animal literature, some researchers have suggested that the emerging technology of Virtual Reality (VR) could provide the means to increase patients' cerebral activation levels via the use of enriched Virtual Environments (VEs). However, 10 years on, this intuitively appealing concept has received almost no attention from researchers and clinicians alike. This paper overviews recent research on the benefits of enriched environments in the injured brain and identifies the potential and challenges associated with implementing VR-based enrichment in paediatric neuropsychological rehabilitation.
创伤性脑损伤（TBI）的一个常见后果是患者大脑激活/觉醒水平显著降低，临床医生一致认为这不利于实现最佳康复效果。在儿科康复背景下，长时间不活动尤其不可取，因为当代研究越来越质疑肯纳德原则，即青少年在TBI后天生具有更强的神经可塑性和功能恢复能力。因此，创造最有利于利用可塑性的康复条件的责任完全落在临床医生肩上。在注意到环境丰富化在促进动物神经可塑性和积极功能结果方面的功效后，一些研究人员提出，虚拟现实（VR）这一新兴技术可以通过使用丰富的虚拟环境（VE）来提高患者大脑激活水平。然而，十年过去了，这个直观上很有吸引力的概念几乎没有得到研究人员和临床医生的关注。本文概述了近期关于丰富环境对受伤大脑益处的研究，并确定了在儿科神经心理康复中实施基于VR的丰富化的潜力和挑战。
