003-23 – Examination of brain plasticity through structural and functional MRI during the audio-visual training in hemianopia patients with Virtual Reality

Hemianopia is a condition in which a person loses vision in part of their visual field. We will use virtual reality (VR) to train patients suffering from hemianopia to use their remaining vision more effectively. We will use structural and functional MRI to measure changes in the brain during training. We hypothesise that VR training will lead to increased plasticity in the brain, which will result in improved vision where the quality of life may also improve.

We will recruit 20 patients in the chronic phase of disease in collaboration the stroke unit at LUFT. The study will be conducted over a period of 7 weeks. Participants will undergo a baseline assessment and then VR training for 6 weeks. At the end of the training period, participants will undergo a second assessment.
We will collect functional and structural brain imaging data to quantify training-induced brain changes. Functional data will focus on the trained task (voluntary attention to visual targets) as was as to a control task (exogenously triggered attention). Diffusion tension imaging data (DTI and DKI) will provide diffusivity and anisotropy measures. Behavioural performance changes will be collected during VR training and in the laboratory and will be correlated with neuromeric data.
We believe that this study will provide valuable insights into the mechanisms of brain plasticity and the potential of VR as a treatment