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Can Virtual Reality Cognitive Rehabilitation Improve Executive Functioning and Coping Strategies in Traumatic Brain Injury? A Pilot Study

Executive dysfunction is among the most common and disabling facets of cognitive impairment following traumatic brain injury (TBI), and may include deficits in reasoning, planning, mental flexibility, some aspects of attention and orientation, awareness and behavior. Rehabilitation programs based on...

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Autores principales: De Luca, Rosaria, Bonanno, Mirjam, Marra, Angela, Rifici, Carmela, Pollicino, Patrizia, Caminiti, Angelo, Castorina, Milva Veronica, Santamato, Andrea, Quartarone, Angelo, Calabrò, Rocco Salvatore
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
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Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10137200/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37190543
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13040578
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author De Luca, Rosaria
Bonanno, Mirjam
Marra, Angela
Rifici, Carmela
Pollicino, Patrizia
Caminiti, Angelo
Castorina, Milva Veronica
Santamato, Andrea
Quartarone, Angelo
Calabrò, Rocco Salvatore
author_facet De Luca, Rosaria
Bonanno, Mirjam
Marra, Angela
Rifici, Carmela
Pollicino, Patrizia
Caminiti, Angelo
Castorina, Milva Veronica
Santamato, Andrea
Quartarone, Angelo
Calabrò, Rocco Salvatore
author_sort De Luca, Rosaria
collection PubMed
description Executive dysfunction is among the most common and disabling facets of cognitive impairment following traumatic brain injury (TBI), and may include deficits in reasoning, planning, mental flexibility, some aspects of attention and orientation, awareness and behavior. Rehabilitation programs based on cognitive-behavioral approaches to retrain planning and problem-solving and other executive deficits may improve such cognitive dysfunction. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of non-immersive virtual reality-based training to improve executive abilities and to reduce anxiety and depression symptoms in patients with TBI. Twenty patients with moderate to severe TBI were enrolled at our Neurorehabilitation Unit and divided to receive either the standard cognitive training or the virtual reality (VR) based cognitive training using the virtual reality rehabilitation system (VRRS-Evo). Each group received the same amount of rehabilitative training, including ROT (Reality Orientation Therapy) and Executive Training (ET), but using a different approach, i.e., a paper and pencil and an advanced approach. All patients were evaluated with a specific psychometric battery before (T0) and after the end (T1) of each program. Comparing pre- and post- treatment scores, in the VR-CT group, we found statistically significant differences in all administered outcome measures for cognitive and executive functioning, i.e., MoCA (p < 0.005), FAB (p < 0.005), TMT-A (p < 0.005), TMT-B (p < 0.005), TMT-BA (p < 0.001), and mood, i.e., HRS-D (p < 0.008). In the Conventional cognitive training (C-CT) group, we found a significant improvement only in MoCA (p < 0.03), FAB (p < 0.02) and in TMT-BA (p < 0.01). Coping strategies also improved, with better results in the VR-CT group. Our results suggest that VR rehabilitation, using the VRRS system, may be a valuable and motivational approach to improve visuo-executive abilities and coping strategies as well as mood in chronic TBI patients.
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spelling pubmed-101372002023-04-28 Can Virtual Reality Cognitive Rehabilitation Improve Executive Functioning and Coping Strategies in Traumatic Brain Injury? A Pilot Study De Luca, Rosaria Bonanno, Mirjam Marra, Angela Rifici, Carmela Pollicino, Patrizia Caminiti, Angelo Castorina, Milva Veronica Santamato, Andrea Quartarone, Angelo Calabrò, Rocco Salvatore Brain Sci Article Executive dysfunction is among the most common and disabling facets of cognitive impairment following traumatic brain injury (TBI), and may include deficits in reasoning, planning, mental flexibility, some aspects of attention and orientation, awareness and behavior. Rehabilitation programs based on cognitive-behavioral approaches to retrain planning and problem-solving and other executive deficits may improve such cognitive dysfunction. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of non-immersive virtual reality-based training to improve executive abilities and to reduce anxiety and depression symptoms in patients with TBI. Twenty patients with moderate to severe TBI were enrolled at our Neurorehabilitation Unit and divided to receive either the standard cognitive training or the virtual reality (VR) based cognitive training using the virtual reality rehabilitation system (VRRS-Evo). Each group received the same amount of rehabilitative training, including ROT (Reality Orientation Therapy) and Executive Training (ET), but using a different approach, i.e., a paper and pencil and an advanced approach. All patients were evaluated with a specific psychometric battery before (T0) and after the end (T1) of each program. Comparing pre- and post- treatment scores, in the VR-CT group, we found statistically significant differences in all administered outcome measures for cognitive and executive functioning, i.e., MoCA (p < 0.005), FAB (p < 0.005), TMT-A (p < 0.005), TMT-B (p < 0.005), TMT-BA (p < 0.001), and mood, i.e., HRS-D (p < 0.008). In the Conventional cognitive training (C-CT) group, we found a significant improvement only in MoCA (p < 0.03), FAB (p < 0.02) and in TMT-BA (p < 0.01). Coping strategies also improved, with better results in the VR-CT group. Our results suggest that VR rehabilitation, using the VRRS system, may be a valuable and motivational approach to improve visuo-executive abilities and coping strategies as well as mood in chronic TBI patients. MDPI 2023-03-29 /pmc/articles/PMC10137200/ /pubmed/37190543 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13040578 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
De Luca, Rosaria
Bonanno, Mirjam
Marra, Angela
Rifici, Carmela
Pollicino, Patrizia
Caminiti, Angelo
Castorina, Milva Veronica
Santamato, Andrea
Quartarone, Angelo
Calabrò, Rocco Salvatore
Can Virtual Reality Cognitive Rehabilitation Improve Executive Functioning and Coping Strategies in Traumatic Brain Injury? A Pilot Study
title Can Virtual Reality Cognitive Rehabilitation Improve Executive Functioning and Coping Strategies in Traumatic Brain Injury? A Pilot Study
title_full Can Virtual Reality Cognitive Rehabilitation Improve Executive Functioning and Coping Strategies in Traumatic Brain Injury? A Pilot Study
title_fullStr Can Virtual Reality Cognitive Rehabilitation Improve Executive Functioning and Coping Strategies in Traumatic Brain Injury? A Pilot Study
title_full_unstemmed Can Virtual Reality Cognitive Rehabilitation Improve Executive Functioning and Coping Strategies in Traumatic Brain Injury? A Pilot Study
title_short Can Virtual Reality Cognitive Rehabilitation Improve Executive Functioning and Coping Strategies in Traumatic Brain Injury? A Pilot Study
title_sort can virtual reality cognitive rehabilitation improve executive functioning and coping strategies in traumatic brain injury? a pilot study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10137200/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37190543
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13040578
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