title: Use of NeuroEyeCoach™ to Improve Eye Movement Efficacy in Patients with Homonymous Visual Field Loss.
abstract: Visual field deficits are common in patients with damaged retinogeniculostriate pathways. The patient's eye movements are often affected leading to inefficient visual search. Systematic eye movement training also called compensatory therapy is needed to allow patients to develop effective coping strategies. There is a lack of evidence-based, clinical gold-standard registered medical device accessible to patients at home or in clinical settings and NeuroEyeCoach (NEC) is developed to address this need. In three experiments, we report on performance of patients on NEC compared to the data obtained previously on the earlier versions of the search task (n= 32); we assessed whether the self-administered computerised tasks can be used to monitor the progress (n= 24) and compared the findings in a subgroup of patients to a healthy control group. Performance on cancellation tasks, simple visual search, and self-reported responses on activities of daily living was compared, before and after training. Patients performed similarly well on NEC as on previous versions of the therapy; the inbuilt functionality for pre- and postevaluation functions was sensitive to allowing assessment of improvements; and improvements in patients were significantly greater than those in a group of healthy adults. In conclusion, NeuroEyeCoach can be used as an effective rehabilitation tool to develop compensatory strategies in patients with visual field deficits after brain injury.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 3FX, UK.
authors.forename: Arash
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3302-5119
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sahraie
authors.affiliation: Neuromotor and Cognitive Rehabilitation Research Centre, Department of Neurological and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy; Neurorehabilitation Unit, Borgo Roma University Hospital, P.le L.A. Scuro 10, 37134 Verona, Italy.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7630-1887
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Smania
authors.affiliation: Department Psychology, LMU University of Munich, Leopoldstrasse 13, 80804 München, Germany.
authors.forename: Josef
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zihl
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000070642:Brain Injuries, Traumatic / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006423:Hemianopsia / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015835:Ocular Motility Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D026741:Physical Therapy Modalities / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology