• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.95-109
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• 2019

Purpose : This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of FES with abdominal muscle contraction before virtual reality training on balance and gait ability in patients of stroke patients. Methods : The subjects were 30 stroke patients who satisfied the selection criteria. They were randomly assigned to a group receiving functional electrical stimulation with a virtual reality training program (the experiment group, n=15) and placebo functional electrical stimulation with a virtual reality training program (the control group, n=15). The program consisted of three 30-min sessions per week for six weeks. The timed up and go test (TUG), the BT4, the G-WALK were used to estimate subjects' balance, gait before and after the program. For the experiment group, the functional electrical stimulation was applied to the external oblique and the rectus abdominis, For the control group, the same program and the placebo functional electrical stimulation were applied. Results : There were significant improvements in the subscales of the balance and gait ability test of those who participated in the functional electrical stimulation, while the control group showed no significant changes. Conclusion : Therefore, functional electrical stimulation with virtual reality effectively improved the balance and gait ability in patients with chronic stroke.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.53-58
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• 2010

This study details the neuroscientific concept of somatosensation, general sensory stimulation therapy and virtual reality therapy. Somatosensation is a method that the human body uses to accept information from the inner and outer parts of the body. A traditional sensory stimulation therapy was designed to maximize neural recovery, but the neural recovery is most effective when the therapeutic environment is similar to real life. The virtual reality provides natural environment that users may perceive as meaningful and even participants with significant impairment can perform some of the activities of their daily lives within the virtual environment. The virtual reality will become a complementary part of somatosensory rehabilitation.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.155-164
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• 2021

Purpose : The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation and virtual reality program application on cognition and depression of patients with mild cognitive impairment, and to find an intervention method that can enhance active participation of patients with mild cognitive impairment. Methods : In this study, 50 mild cognitive impairment patients were divided into a treatment group (25 patients) and a control group (25 patients). The treatment group was applied with a transcranial direct current stimulation and a virtual reality program, while the control group received a placebo transcranial direct current stimulation and a virtual reality program. Both groups received five 50-minute sessions per week (one session per day) for six weeks (total of 30 sessions). NCSE was used to evaluate the cognitive functions of the patients before and after treatment intervention. Moreover, K-BDI was conducted to examine the depression of the patients. Results : As a result of the transcranial direct current stimulation and a virtual reality program intervention, the cognitive function of both treatment and control group significantly (p<.05) improved, and the depression of both treatment and control group significantly (p<.05) decreased. Moreover, the changes in cognitive functions and depression were significant between the two groups¸ treatment and control group (p<.05). Conclusion : The results of the study showed that the application of the transcranial direct current stimulation and virtual reality program significantly improved the cognitive function of mild cognitive impairment patients and decreased the depression of them. Therefore, it could be concluded that the transcranial direct current stimulation and virtual reality program was an intervention method which positively affects the cognitive function and depression of mild cognitive impairment patients.

• Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.171-177
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• 2020

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the upper limb strength, active joint range of motion (AROM), and upper limb function in persons with chronic stroke using virtual reality training in combination with upper limb sensory stimulation. Design: Two-group pretest-posttest design. Methods: 20 subjects were divided into two groups of 10, the sensory motor stimulation and virtual reality training (SMVR) and virtual reality training (VR) groups. The training was conducted for 30 minutes per session, three times a week for 8 weeks.The participants' upper limb strength was measured via the hand-held dynamometer, joint angle AROM was measured via dual inclinometer, function was measured using the Jebson-Taylor hand function test and the manual function test. Results: Significant differences were observed in all groups before and after the training for upper extremity strength, AROM, and function (p<0.05). Between the two groups, the SMVR group showed significant improvement in muscle strength, AROM, and Jebsen-Taylor hand function test scores compared with the VR groups (p<0.05). Conclusions: In this study, we confirmed that sensory stimulation and VR had positive effects on upper extremity strength, AROM, and function of persons with chronic stroke. The results suggest that in the future, VR in combination with sensory stimulation of the upper limb is likely to become an effective method (a rehabilitation training program) to improve the upper limb function of persons with chronic stroke.

• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.67-75
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• 2002

The purpose of this study is to assess the ability of balance control in virtual moving surround stimulation using head mount display (HMD) device and force platform in patients with brain injury. Fifteen patients with stroke (mean age 54.47 yrs) and fifteen healthy normal persons participated. COP parameters were obtained total path distance, frequency of anterior-posterior and medial-lateral component by FFT analysis, weight-spectrum analysis in the two different conditions; (1) during comfortable standing with opened or closed eyes, (2) during virtual moving surround stimulation delivered using HMD with four different moving pattern. Moving patterns consisted of close-far, superior-inferior lilting (pitch) , right-left tilting (roll) and horizontal rotation (yaw) movement. In all parameters, the test-retest reliability was high. Also, the construct validity of virtual moving surround stimulation was excellent (p＜0.05). A posturographic balance assessment system equiped with virtual moving surround stimulation using HMD is considered clinically useful in evaluation of balance control in patients with brain injury.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.37-42
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• 2024

In this study, we explored the possibility of using sympathetic skin response (SSR), a type of electrodermal activity (EDA), as a method of evaluating a subject's responsiveness to physical or psychological stimulation. To provide physical and psychological stimulation, walking on an acupressure plate and a roller coaster virtual reality experience wearing an HMD (head mounted display) were used. Walking on an acupressure plate significantly increased the SSR signal compared to walking on the bare floor. Additionally, it was observed that the SSR response significantly increased while the subject was wearing an HMD and experiencing a roller coaster compared to the resting state of sitting on a chair. The SSR response to physical or psychological stimulation increased in all subjects, but the degree of reactivity differed. These experimental results suggested that sympathetic skin response (SSR) is a useful tool as a biosignal that can be used to evaluate the human body's responsiveness to physical stimulation or psychological stimulation using virtual reality.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.53-62
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• 2023

Purpose : This study evaluated the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation and a virtual reality program on the depression, hand functions, cognitive function, and activities of daily living of patients with mild cognitive impairment by dividing 20 patients with mild cognitive impairment and depression. The 20 patients were divided into a treatment group (transcranial direct current stimulation + a virtual reality program) and a control group (placebo transcranial direct current stimulation + a placebo virtual reality program). Methods : This study allocated ten subjects to the treatment group and ten subjects to the control group. The treatment was given five times per week for six weeks (30 sessions), and each session was 30 minutes. This study screened depression by using SGDS-K, a short geriatric depression scale, to examine depression before and after treatment intervention. This study also used the box and block test, NCSE, and FIM to evaluate hand functions, cognitive function, and activities of daily living, respectively. Results : The results showed that depression significantly decreased, hand functions significantly increased, cognitive function significantly improved, and activities of daily living significantly increased after intervention in the treatment and control groups. The magnitude of changes in depression, hand functions, cognitive function, and activities of daily living was significantly different between the two groups after intervention (p>.05). Conclusion : The results showed that the application of transcranial direct current stimulation and a virtual reality program could improve cognitive function, hand functions, and activities of daily living by decreasing depression. Therefore, it can be concluded that the simultaneous application of transcranial direct current stimulation and a virtual reality program is an intervention method, which can be applied for decreasing depression, enhancing hand functions, improving cognitive function, and increasing activities of daily living in patients with mild cognitive impairment.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.1-18
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• 2019

The virtual reality (VR) is an immerging technology used in the serious games industry to treat psychological disorders like dementia. We created a system named as Virtual Reality Home (VRH) for the elderly who lived with Alzheimer's disease (or other form of dementia) and cognitive impairment using virtual reality technology. The purpose of our study is to measure the long-time immersion and retention of VRH on the moods and apathy, enhancement in physical and brain stimulation as well as a decision making with peoples of dementia and explore the experience of aged care home staff's member. The VRH shows a positive impact on the elderly participants and staff members. During the VRH experience, excitement and a great level of alertness were observed among the participants but few of them were feeling anxiety. Furthermore, we observed the improvement in physical, memory and brain stimulation, but the participants have a low focus on decision making because they wanted to explore all interactable objects in the VRH. This study suggests that the VR may have the potential to improve the quality of life, and these results can assist to expand the future development in the enhancement of efficiency of people with dementia.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.305-310
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• 2007

If a virtual object in a virtual environment represented by a stereo vision system could be touched by a user with some tactile feeling on his/her fingertip, the sense of reality would be heightened. To create a visual impression as if the user were directly pointing to a desired point on a virtual object with his/her own finger, we need to align virtual space coordinates and physical space coordinates. Also, if there is no tactile feeling when the user touches a virtual object, the virtual object would seem to be a ghost. Therefore, a haptic interface device is required to give some tactile sensation to the user. We have constructed such a human-computer interaction system in the form of a simple virtual reality game using a stereo vision system, a vibro-tactile device module, and two position/orientation sensors.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.39-51
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• 2017

Fishes detect various sensory stimuli, which may be used to direct their behavior. Especially, the visual and water flow detection information are critical for locating prey, predators, and school formation. In this study, we examined the specific role of these two different type of stimulation (vision and vibration) during the obstacle avoidance behavior of carp, Cyprinus carpio. When a visual obstacle was presented, the carp efficiently turned and swam away in the opposite direction. In contrast, vibration stimulation of the left or right side with a vibrator did not induce strong turning behavior. The vibrator only regulated the direction of turning when presented in combination with the visual obstacle. Our results provide first evidence on the innate capacity that dynamically coordinates visual and vibration signals in fish and give insights on the novel modulation method of fish behavior without training.