The impact of visuospatial perception on distance judgment and depth perception in an Augmented Reality environment in patients after stroke: an exploratory study.
Chiara Höhler, Nils David Rasamoel, Nina Rohrbach and 4 others
PMID 34419086WHAT IT FOUND
In patients after stroke, visuospatial deficits make judging the distance of virtual objects harder, especially for everyday items.
Quality of stereovision predicted performance in healthy adults, but visuoconstruction was the key factor for patients.
Key findings
01Healthy subjects with impaired stereovision were significantly worse at judging distances and detecting the closest virtual object compared to those with intact stereovision.
02In patients after stroke, stereovision impairment affected only one distance task, while visuoconstruction abilities significantly predicted performance in geometric distance tasks.
03Both groups generally perceived the virtual objects as present and touchable, though patients rated them as more 'real' than healthy subjects did.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study was exploratory with a small sample size (20 patients, 20 controls). Healthy subjects were not age-matched to patients, limiting direct comparison of the effects of aging versus stroke. The AR tasks used unnatural scaling for everyday objects, which may have confounded results for patients. Visual acuity was not formally assessed for all participants, potentially influencing stereovision tests. The researchers could not see exactly what the participants saw, relying on verbal feedback.
Declared interests
The study was funded by Horizon 2020. The authors declared no competing interests.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that screening for stereovision alone is sufficient to predict how well a stroke patient will interact with AR systems. The study found that visuoconstruction abilities were a more critical predictor for patients than stereovision status.