Development and proof of concept of an immersive virtual reality system to evaluate near and far space neglect in individuals after stroke: A brief report.

BACKGROUND

Unilateral spatial neglect (USN) is defined as impaired attention to sensory stimuli on one side. The symptoms can exist for near and far spaces combined or independently. Thus, it is important to evaluate both possibilities in a clinical environment.

OBJECTIVE

To develop a tractable immersive virtual reality (iVR) system that can evaluate both near and far space neglect along with a proof of concept study to determine whether near and far spatial neglect could be described in an actual patient with USN.

METHODS

An object-detecting task was developed in a three-dimensional virtual reality space. The examiner recorded the positional data of objects that were recognized by the patient with USN using coordinate data.

RESULTS

The system could be used to detect near and far space neglects in a patient with USN. No side effects such as vertigo were seen during measurement. This patient showed that the angle for recognition was significantly larger for near space than far space, and exhibited a tendency for the angle of recognition to increase with lower height.

CONCLUSIONS

Our proof of concept study indicated the possibility of applying an evaluation system that separates far and near space neglect using iVR.