Applying Virtual Reality to Diagnosis and Therapy of Sensorimotor Disturbances

Lesions of human cortex areas often lead to elementary as well as higher-order disturbances of motor behaviour. In a cooperation between the Institute of Technical Computer Science in Aachen and the Department of Neurology in Düsseldorf, a system based on Virtual Reality (VR) techniques is being developed for the diagnosis of patients suffering from such sensorimotor disturbances. The use of VR comprises two aspects: firstly, VR can be used as an advanced visualization tool for motion analysis by the physician. Secondly, patients can be brought into virtual scenarios where they can perform specific motor tasks for diagnosis and therapy purposes.