The Growing Use of Virtual Reality in Cognitive Rehabilitation: Fact, Fake or Vision? A Scoping Review.
OBJECTIVE
This review aims to evaluate the role of Virtual Reality (VR) in cognitive rehabilitation of different neurological diseases, and the accessibility to healthcare systems providing this type of treatment.


METHOD OF RESEARCH
Studies performed between 2003 and 2017 and fulfilling the selected criteria were found on PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane and Web of Sciences databases. The search combined the terms VR rehabilitation with different neurological disease.


RESULTS
Our findings showed that neurological patients performed significant improvement in many cognitive domains (executive and visual-spatial abilities; speech, attention and memory skills) following the use of VR training.


CONCLUSIONS
This review supports the idea that rehabilitation through new VR tools could positively affect neurological patients' outcomes, by boosting motivation and participation so to get a better response to treatment. In particular, VR can be used to enhance the effects of conventional therapies, promoting longer training sessions and a reduction in overall hospitalization time.
['Maggio|Maria Grazia|MG|', 'Maresca|Giuseppa|G|', 'De Luca|Rosaria|R|', 'Stagnitti|Maria Chiara|MC|', 'Porcari|Bruno|B|', 'Ferrera|Maria Cristina|MC|', 'Galletti|Franco|F|', 'Casella|Carmela|C|', 'Manuli|Alfredo|A|', 'Calabrò|Rocco Salvatore|RS|']
D000070642:Brain Injuries, Traumatic D003072:Cognition Disorders D003704:Dementia D006801:Humans D009103:Multiple Sclerosis D010300:Parkinson Disease D000071939:Stroke Rehabilitation D000076142:Virtual Reality D063367:Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy
Cognition Neurological diseases Healthcare allocation Neurorehabilitation Virtual reality training