23.06.2023 | Date

Long Night of Science at the MPI-CBS in Leipzig

On June 23, 2023, the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig opened its doors to the public as part of the Long Night of the Sciences. At this annual event, scientists from a wide range of disciplines present their current research. Julia Belger and Felix Klotzsche, members of the VReha consortium, were part of this event and presented in two papers the application of Virtual Reality (VR) in clinical practice. They demonstrated the advantages of VR over traditional neuropsychological approaches and provided an exciting insight into future applications and developments. A special focus was on the presentation of the Immersive Virtual Memory Task (imVMT), a VR task to assess spatial memory performance. After the presentations, visitors had the opportunity to experience and try out the imVMT for themselves.

 

31.8.2021| Apointment

Official end of funding period

The project period of the BMBF-funded project "Virtual Worlds for Digital Diagnostics and Cognitive Rehabilitation" (VReha) officially comes to an end today.

The developed VR-based applications to measure and improve cognitive abilities (especially visual-spatial memory, spatial navigation and executive functions) will be further evaluated and the results published.



We are interested in any kind of clinical, scientific or commercial collaboration. Please feel free to contact us!

19.04.2021 | IEEE VR 2021 

"Finding a Way Forward in VR Locomotion"

In one study, we compared three walk-in-place (WIP) approaches for locomotion in a virtual supermarket which should be used in the context of cognitive rehabilitation. In front of the user a virtual shopping cart is located and (in two of the three variants) a handlebar as a real-world equivalent of the shopping cart handle. In the first tested version, this real-life equivalent was missing. For the steering the rotation of the shoulder was evaluated. In the second variant, we provided the handlebar as a stability aid, while the steering itself was also performed via the shoulder rotation. In the third variant, we evaluated the actual deflection of the handlebar. In the paper we present an evaluation of the influence of the physical handlebar as a fixed reference and postural stability aid on cybersickness and user satisfaction. Our preliminary results show advantages for steering using handlebars. Unexpectedly, a handlebar for pure postural stabilization seems to increase cybersickness more, but improve user satisfaction compared to a pure WIP."


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27.04.2020 | JMIR Publications

"Multidimensional Evaluation of Virtual Reality Paradigms in Clinical Neuropsychology: Application of the VR-Check Framework"

With this article, the VReha consortium presents a systematic evaluation framework for the development of Virtual Reality applications in clinical and cognitive research. Resting on ten major evaluation dimensions, this framework guides the development of patient-centered diagnostic and training paradigms and aids task optimization for the respective target population. The application of this framework is illustrated in the development of the VR paradigms implemented in VReha. 


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02.06.2019 | Video

VReha at a glance

The VReha project aims to improve the individual diagnosis and rehabilitation of neuropsychological patients using Virtual Reality (VR) technology. The video shows how cognitive functions can be recorded and evaluated with high precision and close to everyday life, enabling the creation of individualized training programs. With mobile, untethered VR technology, patients can also train at home and receive internet-based support from their doctors or therapists.
view the video on YouTube
09.10.2019 Appointment

VR-based cognitive rehabilitation

The European Congress of NeuroRehabilitation (ECNR) will take place in Budapest from 9 to 12 October 2019. During the congress Johanne Tromp, member of the VReha team, will give a presentation on VR-based cognitive rehabilitation.

The presentation will take place as part of Symposium 8 - "VR Applications". Date: 10 October 2019 - 15.30 o'clock

03.10.2019 Appointment

Annual conference of German Society for Neurorehabilitation (DGNR)

The annual conference of the German Society for Neurorehabilitation will take place from 5 to 7 December 2019 in Leipzig. The following dates are particularly relevant:

Workshop 1 - Virtual Reality in Rehabilitation: Practical Considerations
  • Date: 5 December 2019, 14.00 - 15.30 o'clock
  • Room: Lecture room 11
  • Chair: Michael Gaebler (Leipzig), Angelika Thöne Otto (Leipzig) 
Read Description (german)
Symposium 14 - Memory and Orientation Disorders
  • Date: 6 December 2019, 13.30 - 15.00 o'clock
  • Room: Lecture room 10
  • Chair: Carsten Finke (Berlin)
Read Description (german)
16.11.2018 Interview

DISCOURSE: ABOUT / POSITION / UNDER
# 2 THINK WITH THE HAND

Dr. Ing. Stephan Krohn (Charité Berlin) and Anna Grohmert perform a dynamic interview. Both deal in their respective disciplines with the image of their own hands in the virtual world and their usefulness as interaction tools with virtual objects or persons.
16.11.2018 I 18:30 Uhr I Leipzig
To the programme
28.09.2018 Meeting

33rd Annual Meeting of Gesellschaft für Neuropsychologie (GNP),
11 to 13 October 2018, Bielefeld-Bethel

Under the direction of Prof. Dr. Sandra Verena Müller (Wolfenbüttel) and Dr. Angelika Thöne-Otto (Leipzig), the symposium on "Digitalisation in Diagnostics and Therapy - Neuropsychological Concepts, Innovative Technologies and Application Examples" will take place.
12.10.2018 I 09:00-10:45 I Session A3
To the programme
18.09.2018 Conference

DIGILITY Conference, 26 to 27 September 2018, Cologne

Michael Gaebler from Max-Planck-Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences present VReha at the Conference.
In the interview, he reports about the virtual world for digital diagnosis and cognitive rehabilitation. 
To the interview
28.08.2018 Information Event

Open Day, 22 September 2018 Uniklinikum Leipzig

The presentation of the VReha project, which aims to put virtual reality at the service of neurorehabilitation, offers special experiences of a completely different kind. Here one can not only experience how virtual realities will be used in the future in diagnostics and in the training of mental performance, e.g. after strokes or traumatic brain injuries, but one can also experience artificial worlds with special glasses and become active.
To the programme
07.06.2018 Fair

CeBIT 2018 Mixed Reality: Walking Naturally Between Worlds 

CeBIT, 11 to 15 June 2018 in Hannover - Exhibition, Conference & Festival. The Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute in Berlin presents developments of the X reality technology.  
04.06.2018 Information Event

Long Night of the Sciences in Berlin

"Virtual reality in psychology and neuro sciences" 
Date: 09.06.2018 I Time: 17:00-00:00 I Ort: School of Mind and Brain (Luisenstrasse 56, Berlin) Room 122
To the programme
08.05.2018 Press Release

Therapy in an Artificial World

Mitteldeutsche Zeitung reports about VReha.
24.04.2018 Radio Report

Are Virtual Reality Glasses to be Prescribed Soon?

MDR Aktuell reports about VReha.
To the radio report 
11.04.2018 Press Release

Virtual World for Therapy

Volksstimme Magdeburg reports about VReha.
05.04.2018 Press Release

Virtual Reality Serving Medicine

Leipziger Volkszeitung about VReha:

After a stroke, patients often suffer from mental disabilities. Using complex tasks in computer-animated realities, researchers now want to capture these more precisely and thus treat them more specifically. Experts from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognititve and Brain Sciences in Leipzig are involved in the "VReha" project. From Leipzig, experts from the Day Clinic for Cognitive Neurology at the Universitätsklinikum are also involved in the project. "Compared to previous methods, diagnostics using virtual reality also has the advantage that progress and regression can be recorded better and the training can be adapted more precisely to the individual performance level," Angelika Thöne-Otto from the day clinic explained. Lvz
24.03.2018 Press Release and Radio Report

The Future of Medicine

MDR Sachsen Anhalt reports about future-oriented research project. 
To the radio report
03.03.2018 Press Release

Virtual Worlds for Diagnostics and Therapy

After neurological diseases such as strokes or dementia, impairment of mental performance is common. The goal of the VReha project is to precisely record these with the help of new techniques from the field of virtual reality and then specifically train them with the patients: researchers from science and medical practice further develop methods of virtual reality so that those affected solve tasks in computer-animated 3D worlds. This makes it possible, for example, to detect disorders more precisely and improve them through training.
View through VR glasses into a virtual kitchen. (Picture: Mert Akbal, Gorian CC BY-SA)
Herbert Steingart (name changed) cuts onions. He adds a little salt and pepper, some basil and the tomato sauce is ready and shortly afterwards his pasta. However, a smell of pasta doesn't come up, because the whole thing only happens before his eyes. In fact, instead of a kitchen knife, he has a controller in his hand and is wearing glasses that are connected to his smartphone and allow him to "immerse" in a virtual world. In this case, it's a kitchen in which he virtually prepares spaghetti with tomato sauce. It is to be determined how well he solves complex tasks in which many individual work steps have to run in parallel.

"In illnesses such as strokes, such tasks are often solved differently by those affected than by people without brain damage. Stroke patients, for example, suffer from concentration and memory problems and thus confuse the sequence of the intermediate steps of a complex task," Dr. Michael Gaebler from Max-Planck-Institute for Cognitive and Neurosciences  (MPI CBS) in Leipzig. "We therefore want to use virtual worlds to let people perform certain actions and observe how they move through unknown spaces, for example, in order to record their cognitive conspicuities precisely and digitally.

Neuroscientist Michael Gaebler is just one of the minds behind the VReha project, which is commissioned by the BFederal Ministry of Education and Research to further develop virtual reality technologies over the next two years in such a way that cognitive impairments can be diagnosed more precisely and improved through training tailored to specific needs. More than ten experts from science, medical practice and industry are working together on the project: Scientists from the MPI CBS and experienced doctors and neuropsychologists from the   Day Clinic for Neurology at the Universitätsklinikum Leipzig  and the  Clinic for Neurology of the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin.

Researchers at the  Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz-Institute  in Berlin will focus primarily on hardware. For example, they are working on the fact that study participants like Mr. Steingart no longer need a controller in the virtual kitchen and can only prepare the noodle dish through natural body movements and hand gestures. In addition to leading the consortium, the medical technology company  HASOMED GmbH  from Magdeburg is also working on a platform that will make it possible to record and evaluate the results of training procedures from any location. "Diagnostics using virtual realities not only has the advantage over traditional methods, where pencil, paper and stopwatches are still used, that abnormalities can be measured more precisely and immediately digitally," Dr. Angelika Thöne-Otto from the Day Clinic for Cognitive Neurology at Universitätsklinikium Leipzig explained. "The simulated worlds can also be changed during a training session. This means that the test subjects enter new rooms each time and solve different tasks. In this way, progress and regression can be better recorded and the training can be more precisely adapted to the individual performance level."

In recent years, affordable virtual reality glasses have been developed. Doctors, psychologists and neuroscientists see great potential in the use of this technology to detect and treat neurological and psychological diseases. But not only that: The goal of VReha's research team is to simplify the application of such methods in the future to such an extent that they can be used via the smartphone and an own app, as it is the case in the scenario described above.

VR technologies are already being used successfully in medical and psychological practice to relieve stress and pain or even trauma. "We want to build on these successes with VReha and also extend them to recognize and treat cognitive deficits", adds Prof. Dr. Carsten Finke from the project partner Charité. The researchers of the VReha project are confident that they will be able to lay the foundation for this in the next two years.
Gefördert durch das Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung