Designing Serious Games for Cognitive and Motor Rehabilitation in Post-Stroke Patients

Designing Serious Games for Cognitive and Motor Rehabilitation in Post-Stroke Patients | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Designing Serious Games for Cognitive and Motor Rehabilitation in Post-Stroke Patients Thiago Alves, Rogério Sales Gonçalves, Marcos Seizo Kishi This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5915479/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Stroke remains the leading cause of disability, often resulting in severe motor and cognitive impairments, including functional deficits and memory loss. Rehabilitation leverages neuroplasticity, enabling undamaged brain regions to compensate for lost functions. Enhancing traditional therapy with robotic bilateral priming and non-invasive brain stimulation, such as serious games, addresses issues like learned non-use and interhemispheric inhibition. These approaches promote cortical excitability rebalancing, fostering a neuroplastic environment conducive to motor and cognitive recovery. Therapeutic tools, like pegboards, aid fine motor coordination recovery, supporting Activities of Daily Living (ADLs), while improving attention, concentration, and visuospatial cognition. Additionally, puzzle games further stimulate memory-related brain regions, stimulating cognitive improvements. This paper explores the potential of serious games and robotic devices in cognitive rehabilitation of stroke, detailing their ability to provide engaging and effective therapy. Several serious games combining memory tasks, reach, and pegboard fitting were developed, with careful consideration of design, therapeutic benefits, and clinical findings. Two stroke groups underwent an intervention with the serious games developed, demonstrating significant improvements (p < 0.05) in cognitive and motor performance across multiple parameters. Approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Uberlândia (ethics approval numbers 51133821.4.0000.5152 | 00914818.5.0000.5152). Robotics Physical Medicine & Rehab Mechanical Engineering stroke rehabilitation cognitive serious games coordination therapeutic tools pegboard Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5915479","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":407928412,"identity":"246eb57d-6f7f-4064-8abd-6ffd2aec7e55","order_by":0,"name":"Thiago 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