Clinical Sciences/Health Conditions
Jin Lingjing, PhD
Senior Physician
Department of Neurology and Neurological Rehabilitation, Shanghai Disabled Persons’ Federation Key Laboratory of Intelligent Rehabilitation Assistive Devices and Technologies, Shanghai Yangzhi Rehabilitation Hospital (Shanghai Sunshine Rehabilitation Center), Tongji University School of Medicine
Shanghai, Shanghai, China (People's Republic)
Ronghua Hong, PhD
Attending physician
Shanghai Yangzhi Rehabilitation Hospital (Shanghai Sunshine Rehabilitation Center),Tongji University
Shanghai, Shanghai, China (People's Republic)
Yunjun Bao, MS
Ph.D. student
School of Medicine,Tongji University
Shanghai, Shanghai, China (People's Republic)
Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) often experience distorted body representation due to sensorimotor integration deficits, leading to postural abnormalities. This study investigated whether a third-person perspective, virtual reality (VR) full-body illusion (FBI) paradigm could remodel body representation and instantly improve postural abnormalities.
Design:
A randomized crossover trial was conducted, enrolling PD patients with postural abnormalities. During the FBI induction, synchronous or asynchronous visuo-tactile stimuli were applied to the participant’s actual back and the back of a virtual body viewed through a head-mounted VR display. Following 3 minutes of synchronous or asynchronous stimulation, patients performed a trunk motor imagery task. Throughout the task, brain activity was recorded using a 64-channel EEG system. Assessments included the evaluation of body ownership via a sense of ownership (SOO) questionnaire and immediate changes in trunk posture measured by F1-F8 angles captured via a Kinect-based system before and after the experiment.
Results:
Thirty PD patients were enrolled with a mean age of 68.70±8.07 years. Compared to baseline and the asynchronous condition, patients exhibited immediate and statistically significant improvement in trunk angles after synchronous stimulation (p < 0.05): Synchronous group ΔF3 (6.37±6.2) °, ΔF4 (3.69±3.65) °, ΔF5 (2.65±2.87) °, ΔF8 (2.36±2.61) °, and total ΔIPA index 2.26±1.53. The SOO questionnaire results indicated that synchronous stimulation induced a significantly stronger body ownership than asynchronous stimulation. The EEG results revealed significant event-related desynchronization (in the alpha and beta bands) over the parietal and parieto-occipital brain regions during motor imagery following synchronous stimulation. Correlation analysis showed a significant positive correlation between the enhancement of the SOO, specific EEG activity, and the degree of improvement in trunk posture.
Conclusion:
This study demonstrates that VR-induced FBI remodels body representation and instantly improves trunk posture in PD patients, potentially through multisensory recalibration, supporting novel sensory-based rehabilitation strategies.
