Action Observation Training for Upper Limb Rehabilitation in Stroke Patients

University Hospital of Ferrara

Status: Completed

Conditions: Stroke Rehabilitation

Treatments: Device: Action observation training

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04622189

Brain_AOT_stroke

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to assess the changes in physiological parameters and clinical scales resulting from treatment with AOT (action observation training) in subjects with subacute stroke. Furthermore, this study assess the perception of applicability and satisfaction degree for this kind of treatments.

Full description

After being informed about the study, all patients give written informed consent and will undergo a 1-week screening period to determine eligibility for study entry. Patient who meet the eligibility requirements will be given clinical and instrumental assessments before the start of treatment (T0) after 3 weeks (T1), at the end of the treatment (T2) and after 6 months (T3). A training program of 4 weeks including 250 videos of every day actions has been developed. Videos includes transitive and intransitive actions. Each week has a five day program, each day is divided in three sessions, in each session there are observation and imitation and attentional questions. AOT is always performed in conjunction with the conventional rehabilitation program.

Enrollment: 10 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Should had experienced first ever ischemic or haemorrhagic stroke
• Fugl-Meyer Assessment < 55
• normal or corrected to normal visual acuity

Exclusion criteria

• presence of severe neuropsychological disorders
• medical conditions likely to interfere with the ability to safely complete the study protocol
• pain in the upper limb assessed with the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS)> 7
• intracranial metal implants
• history of seizures or epilepsy
• severe cardiopulmonary, renal, and hepatic diseases
• pregnancy

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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10 participants in 1 patient group

Action observation training for the upper limb rehabilitation

Experimental group

Description:

Neurorehabilitation training for the upper limb using AOT consists of watching videos related to every day actions. The subjects will be asked to reproduce, as accurately as possible, the actions proposed by the system, that will record their execution. In order to keep high motivation and participation in activities, simple games of skill will also be created that will involve the patient on both the motor and cognitive side. The training program includes 250 videos of every day transitive and intransitive actions: 20 consecutive sessions of 1 hour, five times a week over four weeks.

Treatment:

Device: Action observation training