Virtual reality efficiency for language recovery and quality of life in Wernicke's aphasia: A randomized controlled clinical trial

Aim: Studies on the treatments and their effectiveness in Wernicke's Aphasia are quite limited. The development of technology and the use of virtual reality implementations in rehabilitation processes increase the importance of studies reporting the effectiveness of the treatment in this regard. The aim of the study was to show the effectiveness of Virtual Reality-Assisted Language Treatment (VR-Assisted SLT) implementations in post-stroke Wernicke's Aphasia. Material and Methods: In this context, 30 people were included in this double-blind study that had a complete experimental design and consisted of SLT, Control Group and VR-Assisted SLT who underwent the VR-Assisted treatment process by receiving the NeuroVR 2.0 open source software as a model. Ten participants were assigned for each group. Those receiving treatments received 5 sessions (minimum 45 minutes) weekly for 4 weeks. ALAT and SAQOL-39 were applied as pre-test, post-test, and follow-up tests. Results: Naming and auditory comprehension scores were found to increase significantly over time, especially in the VR-Assisted SLT Group. Although similar increases were detected in the quality of life scores in the SLT and VR-Assisted SLT Groups, the VR-Assisted SLT Group had higher scores on physical and psychosocial subscales of the quality of life than the Control Group (p<0.05). Discussion: VR-Assisted SLT applications can enhance language and quality of life scores by providing realistic experiences.