Presenter(s)

    Rebekah Revadelo

    Comments

    3:00-4:15, Kennedy Union Ballroom

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    Description

    Task specific training can be an effective rehabilitation technique for people with spinal cord injuries (SCI) and virtual reality (VR) is a useful tool for presenting movement tasks in a controlled and systematic way. Upper extremity rehabilitation is especially important for people with SCI, which fits with many VR movement tasks. We sought to assess how blocked-task and random-task practice techniques would impact task performance for 7 SCI subjects playing the VR game Beat Saber. Subjects were instructed to cut through blocks in a specified direction in time to the beat of a song. Performance analysis of Cut Offset Error and Cut Angle Error were recorded for the dominant and nondominant side across 4 trials in the order Blocked 1, Random 1, Random 2, Blocked 2. We hypothesized that performance would decrease between baseline and the first random trial but improve between the first and last blocked trials. We expected improvements on both sides, however, changes were driven by the nondominant side, while the dominant side was steady across trials. For Cut Offset Error, the nondominant side improved between the Random 1 and Blocked 2 trials. For Cut Angle Error, the nondominant side improved between the Blocked 1 and Blocked 2 trials. Results suggest that this practice method can help people with SCI to maintain equal bilateral ability, which is important for their mobility and independence.

    Publication Date

    4-23-2025

    Project Designation

    Graduate Research

    Primary Advisor

    Allison L. Kinney, Megan E. Reissman, Timothy Reissman

    Primary Advisor's Department

    Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

    Keywords

    Stander Symposium, School of Engineering

    Institutional Learning Goals

    Practical Wisdom; Vocation

    Impact of Arm Dominance and Practice Type on Movement Task Performance Post Spinal Cord Injury

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