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Virtual Reality Research Team

Early in 1995, we opened a virtual reality (VR) laboratory within the School of Psychology to investigate the use of computer generated virtual environments in neurological assessment and rehabilitation. The laboratory is equipped with a fully immersive system, a 10-foot rear projection screen with stereoscopic facility, a head-mounted display, 3D motion trackers, a data glove, and a number of “desktop” systems.

The research team is headed by Dr Paul Penn, who is assisted by Tony Leadbetter (Programmer).

Our studies, which have encompassed vascular, traumatic, degenerative and developmental brain damage, suggest that VR has great potential in helping brain damage rehabilitation. We aim to develop the use of VR as a flexible, controllable, yet non-invasive method of directly manipulating brain activity in order to reduce the impact of brain damage.

Research Interests

 

We have already performed or collaborated in research investigating the following uses of VR in brain damage assessment and rehabilitation and in occupational training of people with learning disabilities:

  • Cognitive assessment and retraining of attention, memory and spatial skills
  • Assessment and training of motor skills
  • Occupational training
  • Training powered wheelchair use

We are currently undertaking or collaborating in research using VR to:

  • Assess the driving ability of patients following vascular or traumatic brain injury
  • Train manual wheelchair use
  • Assess the prospective memory ability (capacity to remember to perform future actions) of vascular brain injury patients
  • Create standardised and validated psychometric assessments of rule breaking, strategy formation and prospective memory ability
  • Assess egocentric and allocentric spatial memory using functional magnetic resonance imaging
  • Develop an interactive multimedia package for training people with learning disabilities for employment in an office environment
  • Profiling cognitive difficulties in patients with Dysexecutive syndrome

Collaborative Links

Partner

Project

Regional Neurological Rehabilitation Unit at the Homerton Hospital, Hackney, London

VR in cognitive rehabilitation and manual wheelchair training

The Scientific Institution S. Maria Nascente, Fondazione Don Gnocchi, Milan, Italy

The enhancement of neurological rehabilitation by exposure to virtual environments

Nunnery Fields Hospital, Canterbury, Kent

Memory assessment of patients following stroke using VR

MENCAP

The use of VR in the occupational training of people with learning disabilities

Centro Internazionale Ricerche per l’Autosufficienza degli Handicappati (CIRahO Milan, Italy)

VR training (VIRT): A methodology to achieve a better working capacity for young people with mental disabilities

Royal Hospital for Neurodisability, Putney, London

The application of VR technology to the assessment and training of powered wheelchair users

Kings College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Denmark Hill, London

Assessment of allocentric and egocentric spatial memory in a virtual environment using functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Creating VR-based standardised and validated psychometric assessments of rule breaking, strategy formation and prospective memory ability

Barclays Community Investment Programme

Developing a VR-based interactive multimedia package for training people with learning disabilities for employment in an office environment

Funding

  • MENCAP
  • Horizon — Employment Initiative EC programme/ Italian Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs
  • Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) Capital grant
  • Barclays Community Investment Programme

Sample Publications and Conference Papers

 

(Members of the team have published in excess of 42 articles and book chapters, as well as giving numerous conference presentations and invited talks)

Penn, P.R., Rose, F.D., & Leadbetter, A.E. (in press). The development of a multimedia and virtual reality aid to the self-regulation of driving in older individuals. Journal of Assistive Technology.

Penn, P.R., Rose, F.D., & Leadbetter, A.E. (2008, 12 November). The development of a multimedia and virtual reality aid to the self-regulation of driving in older individuals. Proceedings of the 1st Conference on Interactive Technologies: Education, Disability and Rehabilitation, Nottingham.

Penn, P.R., Rose, F.D., & Johnson, D.A. (2009). Virtual enriched environments in the recovery from brain injury. Developmental Neurorehabilitation, 12(1), 32–43. doi:10.1080/17518420902739365

Penn, P.R., Rose, F.D., & Johnson, D.A. (2008). Can virtual reality environments also be enriched environments: a decade on, is neuropsychological rehabilitation still overlooking a valuable resource? Abstracts for the 5th World Congress of NeuroRehabilitation. Neurorehabil Neural Repair, 22, 514–640.

Penn, P.R., Rose, F.D., & Johnson, D.A. (2008). The use of virtual reality in the assessment and rehabilitation of executive dysfunction. In M. Oddy & A.W. Worthington (Eds.), Brain Injury and Executive Dysfunction: Oxford University Press.

Attree, E.A., Brooks, B.M., & Rose, F.D. (2005). Virtual Environments in Rehabilitation and training: international perspectives. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 8(3), 187-188. doi:10.1089/cpb.2005.8.185

Penn, P.R., Brooks, B.M., Rose, F.D., & Leadbetter, A.G. (2005). Preliminary evaluation of a desktop PC-based virtual reality driving assessment. Journal of Disability and Human Development, 4(4).

Penn, P.R., Rose, F.D., & Brooks, B.M. (2005). Virtual Reality in Everyday Memory Assessment and Rehabilitation: Progress to Date and Future Potential. In B. K. Wiederhold, G. Riva & A. H. Bullinger (Eds.), Annual Review of CyberTherapy and Telemedicine (Vol. 3, pp. 31-38).

Rose, F.D., Brooks, B.M., & Rizzo, A.A. (2005). Virtual reality in brain damage rehabilitation: review. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 8(3), 241-262. doi:10.1089/cpb.2005.8.241

Brooks, B.M., Rose, F.D., Potter, J., Jayawardena, S., & Morling, A. (2004). Assessing stroke patients’ prospective memory using virtual reality. Brain Injury, 18(4), 391-401. doi:10.1080/02699050310001619855

Parslow, D.M., Rose, F.D., Brooks, B.M., Fleminger, S., Gray, J.A., Giampietro, V., et al. (2004). Allocentric spatial memory activation of the hippocampal formation measured using MRI. Neuropsychology, 18(3), 450-461. doi:10.1037/0894-4105.18.3.450

Rose, F.D., Brooks, B.M., & Leadbetter, A.G. (2004, 22-22 September). Preliminary evaluation of a virtual-based driving assessment test. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Disability, Virtual Reality and Associated Technologies (IDCVRAT), New College, Oxford.

Rose, F.D., & Brooks, B.M. (2004). The virtual office trainier: a teaching tool for people with learning disabilities [Editorial]. International Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation, 11.

Brooks, B.M., Rose, F.D., Johnson, D.A., Andrews, T. K., & Gulamali, R. (2003). Support for children following traumatic brain injury: the views of Educational Psychologists. Disability and Rehabilitation, 25(1), 51-56.

Brooks, B.M., & Rose, F.D. (2003). The use of virtual reality in memory rehabilitation: Current findings and future directions. Neurorehabilitation, 18(2), 147-157.

Johnson, D.A., Rose, F.D., Brooks, B.M., & Eyers, S. (2003). Age and recovery from brain injury: legal opinions and experimental evidence. Journal of Pediatric Rehabilitation, 6(2), 103-109.

Brooks, B.M., Rose, F.D., Potter, J., Attree, E.A., Jayawardena, S., & Morling, A. (2002). Assessing stroke patients’ ability to remember to perform actions in the future using virtual reality. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Disability, Virtual Reality and Associated Technologies.

Brooks, B.M., Rose, F.D., Attree, E.A., & Elliot-Square, A. (2002). An evaluation of the efficacy of training people with learning disabilities in a virtual environment. Disability and Rehabilitation, 24(11-12), 622-626. doi:10.1080/09638280110111397

Harrison, A., Derwent, G., Enticknap, A., Rose, F.D., & Attree, E.A. (2002). The role of virtual reality technology in the assessment and training of inexperienced powered wheelchair users. Disability and Rehabilitation, 24(11-12), 599-606. doi:10.1080/09638280110111360

Morris, R.G., Parslow, D., Fleminger, S., Brooks, B., Brammer, M., & Rose, D. (2002). Functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation of allocentric spatial memory tested using virtual reality in patients with anorexic hippocampal damage. In P. Sharkey, C.S. Lányi and P. Standen (Eds.), Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Disability, Virtual Reality and Associated Technologies (pp. 87-92). Hungary.

Morris, R.G., Kotitsa, M., Bramham, J., Brooks, B., & Rose, F.D. (2002). Virtual reality investigation of strategy formation, rule breaking and prospective memory in patients with focal prefrontal neurosurgical lesions. In P. Sharkey, C.S. Lányi and P. Standen (Eds.), Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Disability, Virtual Reality and Associated Technologies (pp. 101-108). Hungary.

Rose, F.D., Brooks, B.M., & Attree, E.A. (2002). An exploratory investigation into the usability and usefulness of virtual training of people with learning disabilities. Disability and Rehabilitation, 24(11-12), 627-633. doi:10.1080/09638280110111405

Rose, F.D., & Brooks, B.M. (2002). The use of virtual environments in cognitive retraining following brain damages. Proceedings of the International Conference on Assistive Technology (ICAT2000).

Parslow, D.M., Morris, R.G., Fleminger, S., Gray, J.A., Rose, F.D., Brooks, B., et al. (2001). A functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation into the neural correlates of allocentric and egocentric memory using virtual reality. Paper presented at the ICOM3, Valencia.

Parslow, D.M., Morris, R.G., Fleminger, S., Gray, J.A., Rose, F.D., Brooks, B., et al. (2001). A functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation into the neural correlates of allocentric and egocentric memory using virtual reality. Cognitive Neuroscience Society, New York.

Parslow, D.M., Morris, R.G., Fleminger, S., Gray, J.A., Rose, F.D., Brooks, B., et al. (2001). An investigation of spatial memory using virtual reality and fMRI [Abstract No. 718]. Human Brain Mapping Conference, Brighton, UK.

Rose, F.D., Attree, E.A., Brooks, B.M., & Andrews, T.K. (2001). Learning and Memory in virtual environments: a role in neurorehabilitation? Questions (and occasional answers) from UEL. Presence, 10(4), 345-358. doi:10.1162/1054746011470208

For further information contact:

School of Psychology
The University of East London
Stratford Campus
Water Lane
London E15 4LZ
UK

Tel: +44 (0)20 8223 4679
Email: p.r.penn@uel.ac.uk

 

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