Education and demonstration – Psychology
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-24
2001-03-27
Kamm, William E. (Department: 3737)
Education and demonstration
Psychology
Reexamination Certificate
active
06206702
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to methods and devices for providing therapy to treat certain symptoms of brain lesions, and more particularly to methods and devices for treating unilateral neglect, a disorder manifested by a failure to respond or orient to stimuli presented contralateral to a brain lesion.
Unilateral neglect can have a global impact on the functioning of an individual, affecting work, play, leisure and self-care. A brain lesion that results in unilateral neglect may occur on either side of the brain, affecting a patient's responses to the opposite field of view. For example, a lesion on the right side of a person's brain may cause a failure to recognize the left side of a person's body and objects positioned to the left side of the person within the environment. Functional ability may be affected, in that such a person may also eat food only from the right side of a plate and comb his hair and brush his teeth only on the right side. Objects to the left side of the affected person may be ignored to such an extent that lie walks into and collides with them, and the afflicted person may also appear to be inattentive to people entering the room at his left. Completion of a task that requires exploration of the left side of his field of view would prove to be quite difficult. Of course, if the lesion is on the left side of the affected person's brain, objects to the right of the person, rather than to the left, would be subject to neglect. This type of neglect is not itself caused by a defect in a patient's field of view, but rather is independent of any such defects.
Computer-aided treatment of human medical conditions is not, in itself, new. For example, a method for treating certain specific medical conditions using a microprocessor-based video game is described in Brown, U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,571. Brown discloses a method of treating a medical condition in a human patient, including the steps of choosing a psychological strategy for treating the medical condition, encoding electronic instructions for an interactive video game in such a way that the interactive video game implements the psychological strategy, loading the electronic instructions into a microprocessor-based unit equipped with a display for displaying the interactive video game and with a patient input device for receiving responses to the interactive video game from the human patient. The video game can also contain instructions for a scoring procedure to quantitatively analyze the medical condition of the human patient. However, the '571 patent is specifically directed at certain disorders and conditions, such as smoking, growth disorder, diabetes, asthma, eating disorder, and depression, rather than right or left side visual neglect.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,828,943, also to Brown, discloses a medical use for video games. However, the disclosure of this patent is directed specifically to an apparatus and methods for the diagnostic assessment of psychological conditions and not to their treatment. In addition, no treatment of visual neglect is shown or contemplated.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,711,671 to Geeslin et al. is directed to the use of an automated cognitive rehabilitation system and method for treating brain injured patients. It also discloses the use of a computer network to remotely treat a plurality of patients, to modify levels of difficulty, and to compile results. However, it does not disclose a method for treating visual neglect in a brain injury patient.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to solve these and other needs in the art, the inventors have succeeded at developing methods of, and devices for treatment of visual neglect manifested by a failure to respond or orient to stimuli presented contralateral to a brain lesion. The invention employs a computer software program that promotes awareness of the neglected side of an affected patient, visual scanning, and cognitive compensation, in addition to facilitating activation of the affected hemisphere of the brain. By addressing these areas, the resulting outcome is an overall improvement in functional performance.
There is thus provided, in accordance with a first aspect of the invention, a method for providing therapy for a person afflicted with unilateral neglect, the method comprising: (a) providing a computer-controlled display screen in front of the person, (b) displaying, on the display screen and under computer control, interactive stimuli to the person including stimuli on a side of the display screen that is subject to the person's neglect; (c) soliciting responses from the person including responses to the stimuli on the side subject to neglect; and (d) quantitatively evaluating the responses of the person to the solicited responses relating to the stimuli on the side subject to neglect to obtain a performance evaluation, the evaluation being indicative of a level of success of the person in overcoming visual neglect. The level of difficulty presented by the stimuli may be varied in accordance with the performance evaluation to exercise the person's responses to stimuli on the side subject to neglect. Sounds having directional properties may be added to enhance the effect of the therapy, and audio or visual distractions, or both, may be used to further exercise the person's responses.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, there is provided a device for providing therapy for a person afflicted with unilateral neglect. The inventive device comprises (a) a display screen configured for placement in front of the person, (b) a computer including a stored program, the computer being coupled to the display screen to operatively display interactive stimuli including stimuli on a selected side of a vertical midline of the display screen; and (c) an input device operatively coupled to the computer and configured to receive responses from a person including responses evoked by the stimuli on the selected side of the display screen; the computer being configured so that the stored program controls the computer to present the stimuli and to quantitatively evaluate responses received from the input device, the evaluations being indicative of a level of success of a person in overcoming visual neglect. The device may also comprise a sound source that provides sounds that appear to emanate from different, selectable directions which may be coordinated with the stimuli on the screen. The stored program may be configured to adjust the presentation of stimuli and to provide distracting stimuli, in accordance with quantitative evaluations of a person's response, to provide the therapy for visual neglect.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the invention, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium containing a stored program for operating a computer, including instructions for the computer to display, on a selected portion of a display screen, interactive stimuli, to solicit and process responses related to the interactive stimuli, and to quantitatively evaluate the responses relating to the stimuli to indicate a level of success of a person in overcoming visual neglect. The stored program on the storage medium may also include instructions for adjusting a level of difficulty of the solicited responses in accordance with the evaluations, and instructions for controlling the computer to present distracting stimuli in accordance with the evaluations.
It is thus an object of the invention to provide a method and a device for treatment: of visual neglect.
It is another object of the invention that the method and device for treatment of visual neglect be entertaining, in that it is enjoyable for a patient to use.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a method and a device for evaluating a patient's progress in overcoming visual neglect, and to automatically adjust therapy treatments in accordance with this measurement.
The manner in which these and other objects of the invention are achieved will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon r
Cranford William T.
Hayden Deborah A.
Howell & Haferkamp LC
Kamm William E.
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