Feasibility of Video Gaming Technology for Arm Recovery Early Post-stroke

"The MindPod Dolphin, is an interactive video game that allows users to engage in non-task-based tasks to motivate the users to play and relearn motor skills. The MindPod gaming platform uses markerless tracking to sense the patient's affected arm. The paretic limb controls Bandit the dolphin underwater in an effort to eat fish. The patient learns to map his/her movements to Bandit in a 3-Dimensional work space to reach the targets. During gaming, the therapist titrates game difficulty. Bilateral gaming components are used (the participant uses a controller with the participant's less-affected limb to control the timing of Bandit's movement) and in-game difficulty can be adjusted to create an immersive, challenging, and engaging experience. In order to be successful, the patient must coordinate both arms to control the temporal and spatial aspects of the game."

"The bimanual arm trainer (BAT) is a device that involves hardware that interfaces with a computer game. The BAT promotes shoulder external rotation and elbow extension in the paretic arm by coupling movements of the paretic arm with the less affected limb as the participant matches his/her arm movements to those of a virtual avatar. The less-affected side and paretic limb are placed in the BAT apparatus and the less affected limb drives the impaired limb through passive, symmetrical movements that simulate rowing down a virtual river. The protocol created by the investigators group, leads the patient through an active-passive training progression similar to paradigms used in neural priming studies. Through these series of movements, the goal is to restore balance between the muscles of the upper back and chest to maximize range of motion in preparation for improved quality of movement."