Omaha, NE (September 21, 2015) - Stroke patients may see improved movement and use of their respective paretic limbs after introduction to virtual reality-based therapy, according to a small pilot study led by Belén Rubio of the Laboratory of Synthetic, Perceptive, Emotive and Cognitive Systems at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Spain.

Travel therapy jobs leader, Aureus Medical Group, discusses how this discovery can be translated to work in your physical therapy jobs or travel nursing jobs.

Study specificsThe researchers studied 20 hemiparetic stroke patients to see if acquired nonuse could be overcome by reinforcement-based training strategies in a virtual environment.

Hemiparesis is a common result of a stroke due to a loss of neural tissue that limits cognitive and motor functions. Patients often overcompensate for this by using the healthy limb more than the paretic limb, even though both work. The benefits of overusing a healthy limb, as compared to balancing use between both healthy and paretic limbs, are short term. The long term-effects are additional loss of neural and behavioral functions of the paretic limb, or "acquired nonuse."

With a Rehabilitation Gaming System linked to a Microsoft Kinect sensor, patients controlled an avatar that synchronized to their own movements. Specifically, the gaming system allows the user to control a virtual body that is viewed from a first-person perspective on a computer screen. The participant's movements are captured and transmitted to the screen by the Microsoft sensor.

The study was divided into three sessions: baseline, intervention and washout. During the intervention session, researchers represented patients' paretic limb movements in the virtual simulation as more accurate than in reality. This, in a sense, "tricked" patients into believing their paretic limb was performing at a higher level than it was.

Read the full article for more on virtual reality-based therapy.

About Aureus Medical Group:

Aureus Medical Group is a national leader in healthcare staffing specializing in the successful placement of Nursing, Advanced Practice, Cardiopulmonary, Diagnostic Imaging, Medical Laboratory, Neurodiagnostics, Radiation Oncology, and Rehabilitation Therapy professionals, as well as Physicians, in hospitals and medical facilities nationwide.  With more than 30 years of experience, Aureus Medical offers a full range of staffing options, including national contract (travel), local contract, and direct hire.  Aureus Medical is the largest affiliate of Omaha-based C&A Industries, a leading provider of human capital management solutions for more than 45 years.