A Virtual Reality Adaptive Exergame for the Enhancement of Physical Rehabilitation Using Social Facilitation

Abstract

VR-based rehabilitation allows the creation of fully controlled environments that define training tasks specifically designed to target the individual needs of patients. VR-based rehabilitation systems can be integrated into game-like interactions, capitalizing on motivational factors that are essential for recovery [MP00]. This project focuses on the development and preliminary evaluation of a VR-based approach for upper limb rehabilitation in chronic stroke survivors who suffer from hemiplegia. Towards this end, we have developed a VR exergame, where the player is required to repeat the supination-pronation movement of the wrist joint, similar to that done within a physiotherapy session. An ongoing issue with such exercises in rehabilitation is that recovery methods lose their effectiveness when the procedure becomes tedious [KJ08, SLSORCan11]. Therefore, the application that we have developed differs from pre-existing ones in the fact that it is based on the theory of Social Facilitation [Z65]. The objective of the proposed project is to investigate the impact of the existence of a virtual agent, who will act as a ''social facilitator'', on the patient's overall performance and interest in the upper limb rehabilitation exergame.