Multisensory stimulation for the rehabilitation of unilateral spatial neglect

To compare improvements in spatial orientation abilities in subjects with unilateral spatial neglect (USN) treated with prism adaptation (PA) or multisensory stimulation (MS).

Protocol

The group treated with PA was asked to perform daily activities in front of the operator consisting of manipulating common objects (collecting coins from the table and placing them in a piggy bank, wearing rings and bracelets, assembling puzzles). In the MS-treated group, patients sit in a dimly lit room 100 cm in front of the rehabilitation device and must move their gaze and head toward the visual stimulus, signaling its detection by pressing a button. Unimodal stimuli and temporally coincident audio-visual stimuli are presented. In both groups, treatment lasted 2 weeks with 2 daily sessions of 20 minutes each.

Results

Overall, the study demonstrated that the results obtained by the two groups are comparable and lasting over time. Treatment with MS appears to improve personal neglect as well, unlike PA, positively affecting deficits in body representation.

The improvements brought by MS persisted over time up to 1 month after treatment, thus opening the door to identifying bimodal stimulation as a new and promising rehabilitation procedure in neglect.