Kinect-based virtual reality training boosts functional recovery of upper limbs after subacute stroke

The Kinect-based virtual reality system for the Xbox 360 enables users to control and interact with the game console without the need to touch a game controller, and provides rehabilitation training for stroke patients with lower limb dysfunctions. Recently, a study team from the First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University in China has verified that Kinect-based virtual reality training could promote the recovery of upper limb motor function in subacute stroke patients, and brain reorganization by Kinect-based virtual reality training may be linked to the contralateral sensorimotor cortex.

This study, reported in the Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 8, No. 31, 2013), located the target brain region for Kinect-based virtual reality intervention and preliminarily explored the mechanism of the Kinect system for physical rehabilitation of upper limb dysfunction.