Applications of Virtual Reality Technology in Rehabilitation

Dear Colleagues,

The democratization of the use of virtual reality has led to an increase in available virtual reality applications for cognitive training and rehabilitation. Despite this increase, the operating mechanisms underlying the effects in virtual rehabilitation are still not completely understood. Most systematic reviews and meta-analyses in the field highlight the need for conducting high-quality research that allows to understand the working mechanisms of virtual rehabilitation in full and how the effects of intervention sustain over time.

Therefore, this Topic seeks to explore the active ingredients of virtual reality technology in cognitive training and rehabilitation in terms of intervention features relative to the use of game elements, presence of virtual humans and avatars, intensive or distributed practice of cognitive training, or whether the automatization of routines by relying on machine learning methods from artificial intelligence contributes to the efficiency of the rehabilitation procedure.

This Topic is open to innovative studies that explore both the use of new technologies for cognitive training and rehabilitation, as well as studies seeking to contribute to uncover the operating mechanisms of virtual rehabilitation for promoting cognitive overall adjustment of people with acquired brain injury or at risk of developing cognitive impairments.

Dr. Jorge Oliveira
Prof. Dr. Pedro Gamito
Topic Editors