LE3 .A278 2019

2019

Champod, Anne Sophie

Acadia University

Bachelor of Science

Honours

Psychology

Psychology

Spatial neglect is a debilitating neurological condition that is common after stroke. Currently there is no standardized treatment protocol for spatial neglect but prism adaptation (PA) has shown promise as a treatment modality. Peg-the-Mole (PTM) is a standardized game-like PA protocol that has been shown to induce shifts in attention equivalent to typical PA procedures while being more engaging and requiring less equipment. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of a modified version of PTM for future use in electroencephalography (EEG) studies. Fifteen healthy young adults alternated between wearing 15-degree right-shifting prism goggles and sham (i.e., clear) goggles to allow for repeated adaptation and de-adaptation while using PTM. Proprioceptive, visual, and functional outcome measures were administered before and after PTM to assess after-effects and confirm adaptation. Participants exhibited significant after-effects on the proprioceptive and visual tasks (p< .05) but not on the functional task (p> .05). These findings will help further the development of PTM and facilitate future EEG studies with the goal of understanding the neuromechanisms underlying the effects induced by the procedure..

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:3313