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Biomedical subjects

F D Rose

Publications and source records attributed to F D Rose.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2004

Assessing stroke patients' prospective memory using virtual reality.

There is a dearth of empirical evidence about prospective memory (remembering to perform actions in the future) in stroke patients. A probable reason for this is that it is difficult to perform a realistic and controlled assessment of prospective memory ability in a rehabilitation setting. Virtual reality may provide a solution to this difficulty by allowing prospective memory to be tested in a simulation of a real-life situation whilst retaining a laboratory level of scientific control. This exploratory study assessed the performance of stroke patients and age-matched control participants on event-, time- and activity-based prospective memory retrieval tasks in a personal computer-based virtual environment. Stroke patients were severely impaired at the event- and activity-based tasks compared with age-matched controls, but only marginally impaired at the time-based task. The additional knowledge gained from this form of assessment could direct rehabilitation more effectively towards specific impairments of individual patients.

Aged↗
PubMed2003

Support for children following traumatic brain injury: the views of educational psychologists.

PURPOSE: For many years, neuroscientific research appeared to support the view that the young brain was more resilient and better able to withstand damage than the mature brain. More recent neuroscience research has questioned this view. Nevertheless, the view that 'younger is better' continues to be accepted by many medical practitioners. The present study sought to establish whether the training and experience of educational psychologists has made them aware that young children are particularly vulnerable to long-term effects of brain injury. METHOD: Educational psychologists were asked to estimate the need for additional social/family and educational support, and how long such additional support would be needed, in four fictitious but clinically-based case studies which differed only in the reported age of the child/adolescent at the time of the injury. RESULTS: Educational psychologists consistently rated young children with brain injuries as needing more additional social/family support for longer than adolescents. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that there is an appreciation of the additional needs of young children who have sustained brain injuries within our educational system.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2003

The use of virtual reality in memory rehabilitation: current findings and future directions.

There is considerable potential for using virtual reality (VR) in memory rehabilitation which is only just beginning to be realized. PC-based virtual environments are probably better suited for this purpose than more immersive virtual environments because they are relatively inexpensive and portable, and less frightening to patients. Those exploratory studies that have so far been performed indicate that VR involvement would be usefully directed towards improving assessments of memory impairments and in memory remediation using reorganization techniques. In memory assessment, the use of VR could provide more comprehensive, ecologically-valid, and controlled evaluations of prospective, incidental, and spatial memory in a rehabilitation setting than is possible using standardized assessment tests. The additional knowledge gained from these assessments could more effectively direct rehabilitation towards specific impairments of individual patients. In memory remediation, VR training has been found to promote procedural learning in people with memory impairments, and this learning has been found to transfer to improved real-world performance. Future research should investigate ways in which the procedural knowledge gained during VR interaction can be adapted to offset the many disabilities which result from different forms of memory impairment.

Humans↗
PubMed2000

Training in virtual environments: transfer to real world tasks and equivalence to real task training.

Virtual environments (VEs) are extensively used in training but there have been few rigorous scientific investigations of whether and how skills learned in a VE are transferred to the real world. This research aimed to measure and evaluate what is transferring from training a simple sensorimotor task in a VE to real world performance. In experiment 1, real world performances after virtual training, real training and no training were compared. Virtual and real training resulted in equivalent levels of post-training performance, both of which significantly exceeded task performance without training. Experiments 2 and 3 investigated whether virtual and real trained real world performances differed in their susceptibility to cognitive and motor interfering tasks (experiment 2) and in terms of spare attentional capacity to respond to stimuli and instructions which were not directly related to the task (experiment 3). The only significant difference found was that real task performance after training in a VE was less affected by concurrently performed interference tasks than was real task performance after training on the real task. This finding is discussed in terms of the cognitive load characteristics of virtual training. Virtual training therefore resulted in equivalent or even better real world performance than real training in this simple sensorimotor task, but this finding may not apply to other training tasks. Future research should be directed towards establishing a comprehensive knowledge of what is being transferred to real world performance in other tasks currently being trained in VEs and investigating the equivalence of virtual and real trained performances in these situations.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1999

A preliminary investigation into the use of virtual environments in memory retraining after vascular brain injury: indications for future strategy?

PURPOSE: In a preliminary investigation of the use of Virtual Environments (VEs) in neurorehabilitation, this study compares the effects of active and passive experience of a VE on two types of memory in vascular brain injury patients and controls. METHOD: Forty-eight patients with vascular brain injury and 48 non-impaired control participants were randomly assigned to active and passive VE conditions. The active participants explored a virtual bungalow seeking a particular object; the passive participants observed, but did not control movement through the VE, also seeking the object. Afterwards, both active and passive participants completed spatial recognition and object recognition tests. RESULTS: Expectedly, the patients were impaired relative to the controls but were able to perform the virtual tasks. Active participation in the VE enhanced memory for its spatial layout in both patients and controls. On object recognition, active and passive patients performed similarly, but passive controls performed better than active controls. CONCLUSIONS: The findings are discussed in relation to their implications for memory rehabilitation strategies.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

The specificity of memory enhancement during interaction with a virtual environment.

Two experiments investigated differences between active and passive participation in a computer-generated virtual environment in terms of spatial memory, object memory, and object location memory. It was found that active participants, who controlled their movements in the virtual environment using a joystick, recalled the spatial layout of the virtual environment better than passive participants, who merely watched the active participants' progress. Conversely, there were no significant differences between the active and passive participants' recall or recognition of the virtual objects, nor in their recall of the correct locations of objects in the virtual environment. These findings are discussed in terms of subject-performed task research and the specificity of memory enhancement in virtual environments.

Humans↗
PubMed1998

Social and behavioural effects of traumatic brain injury in children.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of death and permanent disability in children and adolescents. Although cognitive and behavioural effects have now been reported for all degrees of TBI severity in children, other aspects of functioning which might be related (such as psychosocial adjustment), have been neglected. In the present study the social and behavioural effects of TBI were assessed by comparing 27 TBI children with 27 controls. TBI children demonstrated significantly lower levels of self-esteem and adaptive behaviour, and higher levels of loneliness, maladaptive behaviour and aggressive/antisocial behaviour. These findings confirm the previously demonstrated detrimental effects of TBI on children's behavioural functioning and offer new evidence for the detrimental effects of TBI on children's social functioning.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1998

Virtual reality: a new prosthesis for brain injury rehabilitation.

Virtual Reality (VR) technology is a relatively new application to rehabilitation medicine, yet it offers considerable potential to achieve significant successes in assessment, treatment and improved outcome, thereby increasing our knowledge of neuroplasticity. The capabilities of VR are especially evident in neurological rehabilitation, where cognitive and behavioural problems often interact with physical impairments to reduce the overall level of functioning and interaction. The need for effective interventions in neurological rehabilitation demands communication and collaboration between disciplines. This paper presents some of the current areas of the clinical applications of VR, emphasising the link between experimental evidence on recovery after brain damage and the clinical problems encountered in a ward setting.

Brain Injuries↗
PubMed1998

Virtual environments in brain damage rehabilitation: a rationale from basic neuroscience.

The potential of virtual environments in assessment and training of cognitive function is a more than adequate reason for their application to neurorehabilitation. However, there is a more fundamental justification, and one which is firmly rooted in the neuroscience literature. Over the last half century there has been a wealth of published evidence that enriching the environments of laboratory rats stimulates neuroplastic change in the cerebral cortex, enhances learning and problem solving in normal rats and reduces cognitive impairment in brain damaged rats. Central to all three effects of enrichment are the increased levels of interaction with the physical environment engendered by enrichment. Placing humans who have damaged brains in virtual environments is one way of enhancing their levels of environmental interaction which, because of cognitive impairments and sensory and motor disabilities, is otherwise difficult to achieve. In this chapter we explore the potential of virtual environments as enriched environments within the rehabilitation regime. The underlying assumption, that interaction with a virtual environment is functionally equivalent to interaction with a real environment, is examined. Three lines of relevant evidence are reviewed, neuroimaging studies and psychophysiological studies of people in virtual environments and studies of transfer of training from virtual to real tasks. An agenda for future research in this are is proposed.

Animals↗
PubMed1997

Virtual environments in neuropsychological assessment and rehabilitation.

Brain damage constitutes a major problem for those affected, for their families and friends and for society as a whole. The need for effective rehabilitation strategies is clear. Yet, until the early 1960s, the brain was generally considered to be a somewhat fixed and inflexible organ. In consequence the impairments associated with brain damage were generally regarded as "incurable". Since that time neuroscientists have had reason to change their views dramatically. However, much remains to be done. Progress depends upon a co-ordinated multidisciplinary approach within which assistive technology will be a key player. Within the area of assistive technology, one of the developments which holds particular promise for the field of neurological rehabilitation is the computer technology underlying virtual environments (commonly known as virtual reality). In this chapter we describe the new opportunities offered by virtual reality to pursue several aspects of the rehabilitation process. The value of the technology of virtual environments in this context is that it allows us to immerse people with brain damage in relatively realistic interactive environments which, because of their patterns of impairment, would otherwise be unavailable to them.

Computer Graphics↗
PubMed1996

Age and recovery from brain injury: clinical opinions and experimental evidence.

For many years the notion that brain damage causes less impairment in children than in adults (sometimes known as the 'Kennard Principle') has enjoyed widespread support among scientists and clinicians. More recently neuroscientists have questioned the Principle, most now taking an opposing view that damage to the rapidly developing brain can be more harmful than equivalent damage in adulthood. Many clinicians, however, appear reluctant to reject the Kennard Principle. This study investigates the extent to which the Kennard Principle still guides the judgement of different groups of health-care professionals (neurosurgeons, neurologists, neuropsychologists, general practitioners, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and speech therapists). Subjects were asked to estimate the extent of recovery in clinically based but fictitious case studies which differed only in the reported age of the patient. The professions differed in their levels of optimism regarding the extent of recovery to be expected, but all predicted better recovery in younger patients (under 10) than in adults with otherwise similar brain injuries. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the treatment of brain injuries in the young.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Virtual reality: an assistive technology in neurological rehabilitation.

The need for improved neurological rehabilitation strategies is self-evident. Recent developments in the computer technology of virtual reality hold the promise of exciting progress in this area. In this paper four areas of potential application of virtual reality to neurological rehabilitation are reviewed.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1995

Pain and pain tolerance in professional ballet dancers.

Pain experience in sport had been the subject of increasing research in recent years. While sports professionals have generally been found to have higher pain thresholds than control subjects the reasons for this are not entirely clear. The present study seeks to investigate one possible explanatory factor, the importance of the popular image of the physical activity and of the self-image of its participants, by examining pain experience in professional ballet dancers. Like sports professionals, dancers were found to have higher pain and pain tolerance thresholds than age matched controls in the Cold Pressor Test. However, they also reported a more acute experience of the sensory aspects of the pain. Explanations of this apparent paradox are discussed both in terms of the neuroticism scores of the two groups and in terms of the dancers' greater experience of pain and its relationship with physical activity. The results illustrated the importance of using multidimensional measures of pain in this type of investigation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1993

Environmental enrichment following brain damage: an aid to recovery or compensation?

Postoperative environmental enrichment (EC) in rats with brain lesions has been hailed as a potential agent of recovery of function following brain damage. However, most such claims are based on examining the effects of EC on acquisition of a new task following brain injury. Elsewhere we have argued that since this paradigm fails to establish a preoperative behavioural baseline against which to compare subsequent performance it may demonstrate compensation but cannot provide evidence of recovery. The present study directly addresses this issue by examining the effects of postoperative EC both on performance of a preoperatively acquired water maze escape response as well as on de novo acquisition of such a response in rats with bilateral occipital and sham lesions. In terms of swim times postoperative EC was found to significantly improve the performance of subjects which had not been preoperatively trained but not the performance of those subjects which had. However, in terms of a trials to criterion measure postoperative EC benefitted animals in both the preoperative and postoperative training conditions. The results, therefore, support the view that what has been observed in most previous studies is EC-induced compensation rather than recovery and also help to define the conditions under which this occurs. However, they also argue for further investigation of the hypothesis that postoperative EC may enhance recovery of lesion-impaired performance consistency.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Patient-controlled analgesia: a new method for old.

Patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) has successfully made the transition from a research tool for the investigation of pain, to a wider clinical utility as method of pain control. Reliable and sophisticated PCA systems have been commercially available for some time. The technique has been most commonly used for control of postoperative pain, but has also been successfully used during labour, after burns, in acute painful medical conditions and in terminal care. It is generally more effective than the traditional methods of postoperative pain control but not automatically so. The choice of opioid, the settings chosen for demand dose and the lockout interval will greatly influence the effectiveness of this method of analgesia. Psychological variables are also important in predicting the efficacy of PCA.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1993

How does environmental enrichment aid performance following cortical injury in the rat?

Understanding how postoperative environmental brain damage in animals may help in devising treatment regimes for brain injured humans. This study tests Finger's hypothesis that EC increases the animal's ability to switch to alternative cues when brain damage renders the cues normally used in performing the task less salient or unavailable. Following preoperative water maze training to visual cues, rats were given either bilateral occipital lesions or sham operations, housed in either EC or standard conditions and then tested in the water maze in alternating visual and non-visual cue conditions. We found no evidence that postoperative EC helped lesioned rats to switch to non-visual cues when visual cues were unavailable.

Acclimatization↗