XR and Neurorehabilitation

Neurological disorders represent the major cause of disability worldwide. Since years, XR has been used to support the administration of motor and cognitive rehabilitation programs, on the basis of the hypothesis that it was able to increase the motivation to train, and thus the compliance to the treatment and the performances of the patients. Nowadays, the first evidence from well-structured studies and literature reviews seems to confirm this hypothesis, reporting positive outcomes, especially when XR is used in conjunction with other treatments. Moreover, patients' motivation appears to be positively influenced, and so it is for their general attitude toward technology, even in the case of patients with no previous experience with XR. On the other hand, the large heterogeneity of the investigated programs--in terms of technology, immersion, proposed task, duration, frequency, and intensity--makes it impossible to draw definitive conclusions in terms of defining the optimal pathology-specific (or symptom-specific) treatment. This makes the use of XR in standard care still remote, and allowed highlighting a series of open challenges that still exist in the field. In the future, answering these challenges will provide patients with safe, tailored, and adaptable rehabilitation programs that can be carried out at home, and healthcare systems with the means to implement effectively and extensively the paradigm of continuity of care, thus reducing the societal and economic burden related to the management of neuro-logical disorders.