Efficacy of home-based visuomotor feedback training in stroke patients with chronic hemispatial neglect

Stéphanie Rossit (Lead Author), Christopher S. Y. Benwell, Larissa Szymanek, Gemma Learmonth, Laura McKernan-Ward, Elaine Corrigan, Keith Muir, Ian Reeves, George Duncan, Philip Birschel, Margaret Roberts, Katrina Livingstone, Hazel Jackson, Pauline Castle, Monika Harvey

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23 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Hemispatial neglect is a severe cognitive condition frequently observed after a stroke, associated with unawareness of one side of space, disability and poor long-term outcome. Visuomotor feedback training (VFT) is a neglect rehabilitation technique that involves a simple, inexpensive and feasible training of grasping-to-lift rods at the centre. We compared the immediate and long-term effects of VFT vs. a control training when delivered in a home-based setting. 20 participants were randomly allocated to an intervention (who received VFT) or a control group (n = 10 each). Training was delivered for 2 sessions by an experimenter and then patients self-administered it for 10 sessions over 2 weeks. Outcome measures included the Behavioural Inattention Test (BIT), line bisection, Balloons Test, Landmark task, room description task, subjective straight-ahead pointing task and the Stroke Impact Scale. The measures were obtained before, immediately after the training sessions and after 4-months post-training. Significantly greater short and long-term improvements were obtained after VFT when compared to control training in line bisection, BIT and spatial bias in cancellation. VFT also produced improvements on activities of daily living. We conclude that VFT is a feasible, effective, home-based rehabilitation method for neglect patients that warrants further well-designed randomized controlled trials on a large sample of patients.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)251-272
Number of pages22
JournalNeuropsychological Rehabilitation
Volume29
Issue number2
Early online date24 Jan 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 7 Feb 2019

Keywords

  • Hemispatial neglect
  • stroke rehabilitation
  • attention
  • hemiparesis
  • activities of daily living

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