Photo Credit: Gorodenkoff
The following is a summary of “Development of a serious game-based cognitive rehabilitation system for patients with brain injury,” published in the November 2023 issue of Psychiatry by Rahmani-Katigari et al.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can cause severe cognitive impairments, making rehabilitation challenging. Gamification offers a promising solution to enhance patient engagement.
Researchers started a retrospective study to design a customized serious game-based cognitive rehabilitation system for brain injury patients.
They conducted a study comprising 4 stages. Requirements through focus groups were analyzed. Subsequently, the conceptual model for system structure and game content was discussed and agreed upon. In the second stage, the system was designed using various modeling diagrams. In the third stage, a system prototype was developed using the Unity game engine and C# programming. Usability was then assessed through heuristic evaluation.
The results showed in focus group meetings involving 7 participants, a conceptual model for the system structure and game content was formulated. Both therapist and patient versions featured a developed interface for the game. The chosen gaming genre, 2D casual, included a postman character and 10 missions on the smartphone platform, as determined by the focus groups. For instance, the initial mission required the postman to traverse from mailboxes 1 to 10, collecting letters aligned with the Trail Making Test task. Sixteen tasks from diverse attention subcategories were incorporated into these missions. Privacy, help/documentation, and design aesthetics/minimalism had the highest percentage of issues in the usability evaluation.
They concluded that a game-based cognitive rehabilitation system was developed to enhance attention in brain injury patients.
Source: bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-023-05396-2
