Audio-Visual Stimulation Improves Visual Search Abilities in Hemianopia due to Childhood Acquired Brain Lesions

To evaluate the effectiveness of a multisensory rehabilitation treatment on child and adolescent patients suffering from hemianopia following acquired brain lesions.

Protocol

The patient sits 57 cm in front of the device. While maintaining the fixation point at the center, they must direct their gaze toward the presented stimuli and signal detection by pressing a button. Unimodal visual, unimodal auditory, and bimodal stimuli (audio+sound, both spatially and temporally coincident or non-coincident) are presented. Three to four weeks of treatment with daily sessions lasting approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Results

The tests performed show that multisensory rehabilitation treatment leads to significant improvements in visual detection, scanning, and reading speed tests, particularly in the moving eye condition. The results obtained are comparable to those of adults analyzed in other studies who underwent the same treatment.

Compared to studies conducted on adults, it was necessary to reduce session times in this study involving children and adolescents. Furthermore, a different level of motivation must be considered—higher in adults than in children—which extends the overall duration of the rehabilitation treatment.