Schiza Eirini, Matsangidou Maria, Neokleous Kleanthis, Pattichis Constantinos S
Research Centre on Interactive Media, Smart Systems and Emerging Technologies (RISE), RISE Limited (RISE), Nicosia, Cyprus.
eHealth Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus.
Front Robot AI. 2019 Oct 16;6:100. doi: 10.3389/frobt.2019.00100. eCollection 2019.
Recent advancements in Virtual Reality (VR) immersive technologies provide new tools for the development of novel and promising applications for neurological rehabilitation. The purpose of this paper is to review the emerging VR applications developed for the evaluation and treatment of patients with neurological diseases. We start by discussing the impact of novel VR tasks that encourage and facilitate the patient's empowerment and involvement in the rehabilitation process. Then, a systematic review was carried out on six well-known electronic libraries using the terms: "Virtual Reality AND Neurorehabilitation," or "Head Mounted Display AND Neurorehabilitation." This review focused on fully-immersive VR systems for which 12 relevant studies published in the time span of the last five years (from 2014 to 2019) were identified. Overall, this review paper examined the use of VR in certain neurological conditions such as dementia, stroke, spinal cord injury, Parkinson's, and multiple sclerosis. Most of the studies reveal positive results suggesting that VR is a feasible and effective tool in the treatment of neurological disorders. In addition, the finding of this systematic literature review suggested that low-cost, immersive VR technologies can prove to be effective for clinical rehabilitation in healthcare, and home-based setting with practical implications and uses. The development of VR technologies in recent years has resulted in more accessible and affordable solutions that can still provide promising results. Concluding, VR and interactive devices resulted in the development of holistic, portable, accessible, and usable systems for certain neurological disease interventions. It is expected that emerging VR technologies and tools will further facilitate the development of state of the art applications in the future, exerting a significant impact on the wellbeing of the patient.
虚拟现实（VR）沉浸式技术的最新进展为神经康复新的、有前景的应用开发提供了新工具。本文旨在综述为评估和治疗神经疾病患者而开发的新兴VR应用。我们首先讨论新型VR任务的影响，这些任务鼓励并促进患者在康复过程中的自主参与。然后，使用“虚拟现实与神经康复”或“头戴式显示器与神经康复”等术语，对六个知名电子图书馆进行了系统综述。该综述聚焦于全沉浸式VR系统，共识别出在过去五年（2014年至2019年）发表的12项相关研究。总体而言，本文综述了VR在某些神经疾病中的应用，如痴呆、中风、脊髓损伤、帕金森病和多发性硬化症。大多数研究显示出积极结果，表明VR是治疗神经疾病的可行且有效工具。此外，该系统文献综述的结果表明，低成本的沉浸式VR技术在医疗保健和家庭环境中的临床康复中可能有效，具有实际意义和用途。近年来VR技术的发展带来了更易获取且价格合理的解决方案，仍能产生有前景的结果。总之，VR和交互式设备促成了用于某些神经疾病干预的整体、便携、易获取且易用的系统的开发。预计新兴的VR技术和工具将在未来进一步推动先进应用的发展，对患者的健康产生重大影响。
