After someone has had a brain-damaging Stroke, playing virtual reality games seems to encourage the brain to reorganize to compensate for the damage, and this may have a beneficial effect on recovery of movement, according to a new report.

“There have been a number of approaches used in Stroke rehabilitation to help patients recover walking or gait function, but outcomes have been variable,” lead author Dr. Sung H. You, from Hampton University in Virginia, said in a statement. “The problem is that we don’t fully understand how recovery after stroke affects the brain.”

In the new study, appearing in the American Heart Association’s journal Stroke, the researchers evaluated three virtual reality games designed to improve range of motion, balance, stepping, and other measures of motor function in stroke patients.

Ten people who had suffered a stroke were randomly assigned to rehabilitation groups that did or did not play these games - Stepping Up/Down, Sharkbait, and Snowboarding.

Playing the games seemed to normalize brain activity seen with movement.

As the team explains, moving a leg usually shows up as brain activity on the opposite side; after a Stroke, movement in one leg typically produces activity on both sides of the brain. The new findings suggest that virtual reality games help restore the opposite-side pattern.

In addition, the authors found that motor function was significantly improved in patients in the virtual reality group compared with those who got standard rehab.

“These are the first findings that suggest that virtual reality training results in a reorganization of brain activation, or brain recovery, which is associated with improved gait function,” You noted.

SOURCE: Stroke, rapid access May 13, 2005.