Samenvatting

Mirror therapy is a common therapy to help patients recover after an accident in which an arm or hand is paralyzed. It activates mirror neurons and fools the brain into perceiving the paralyzed arm or hand is still moving. This stimulates the brain which is an important aspect to improve recovery. A similar setup can now be achieved using virtual reality technologies which not only allows for the addition of gamification elements but also gives patients the opportunity to practice whenever and wherever they want. Within the project ‘Virtual Reality for Rehabilitation’ we build these virtual reality environments and study how they can improve rehabilitation therapy and complement, or change, existing rehabilitation therapy. First, we studied to what extent the effects of mirror therapy are transferable to a virtual reality environment. We are now moving into the next phase of the project to study the use of virtual reality at home. In this research we focus on the question ‘what kind of new issues and challenges are introduced when virtual reality mirror therapy is transferred to a home setting’.