title: Use of prism adaptation in children with unilateral brain lesion: Is it feasible?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Unilateral visuospatial deficits have been observed in children with brain damage. While the effectiveness of prism adaptation for treating unilateral neglect in adult stroke patients has been demonstrated previously, the usefulness of prism adaptation in a pediatric population is still unknown. The present study aims at evaluating the feasibility of prism adaptation in children with unilateral brain lesion and comparing the validity of a game procedure designed for child-friendly paediatric intervention, with the ecological task used for prism adaptation in adult patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-one children with unilateral brain lesion randomly were assigned to a prism group wearing prismatic glasses, or a control group wearing neutral glasses during a bimanual task intervention. All children performed two different bimanual tasks on randomly assigned consecutive days: ecological tasks or game tasks. The efficacy of prism adaptation was measured by assessing its after-effects with visual open loop pointing (visuoproprioceptive test) and subjective straight-ahead pointing (proprioceptive test).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Game tasks and ecological tasks produced similar after-effects. Prismatic glasses elicited a significant shift of visuospatial coordinates which was not observed in the control group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Prism adaptation performed with game tasks seems an effective procedure to obtain after-effects in children with unilateral brain lesion. The usefulness of repetitive prism adaptation sessions as a therapeutic intervention in children with visuospatial deficits and/or neglect, should be investigated in future studies.
authors.affiliation: University Institute of Health Sciences Research, University of Balearic Islands, Palma de Mallorca, Spain; Department of Nursing and Physiotherapy, University of Balearic Islands, Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
authors.forename: Inmaculada
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Riquelme
authors.affiliation: Brugmann University Hospital, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Camille
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Henne
authors.affiliation: Haute Ecole Louvain en Hainaut, Montignies-sur-Sambre, Belgium.
authors.forename: Benoit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Flament
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Valéry
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Legrain
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Yannick
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bleyenheuft
authors.affiliation: Brugmann University Hospital, Brussels, Belgium; Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium; Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Physical Education and Physiotherapy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium. Electronic address: samar.hatem@chu-brugmann.be.
authors.forename: Samar M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Hatem
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000377:Agnosia / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D002648:Child; D005139:Eyeglasses; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014794:Visual Fields
keywords: Cerebral palsy; Children; Game task; Neglect; Prism adaptation; Unilateral brain lesion; Visuospatial deficits