Abstract Background and aims Stroke, the leading cause of disability worldwide, results in motor and cognitive impairment limiting functional independence. Traditional rehabilitation focuses on restoring function (i.e., compensation, strengthening). Few interventions focus on cognitive efficiency, especially to activate deep brain regions (e.g., hippocampus). The NeuroAnimation Therapy (NAT), an immersive, game-based intervention, has demonstrated neuroplastic changes in the hippocampus (Carlson, 2025) and improved cognitive efficiency for stroke survivors (Krakauer, et al., 2021). (Image 1). The aims of this study were to analyze the effect of NAT on cognitive processing speed and determine effect sizes. Methods Retrospective chart review of stroke survivors who completed NAT. Single group, pre-test post-test design. The Defense Automated Neurobehavioral Assessment (DANA) was used to assess cognitive efficiency (i.e., Simple Reaction Time (SRT), Procedural Reaction Time (PRT), Go/No-Go (GNG) Impulse Control). Wilcoxon Signed Rank Tests were used to account for non-parametric data distributions and small sample sizes, and to analyze differences in median throughput scores for DANA scores. Results Differences in DANA were statistically significant (GNG 0.0001; SRT 0.001) with large effect sizes (d=-0.9). (Table 1). Table 1. Statistically significant differences from pre- to post-testing (p0.0001, P0.001) and very large effect sizes (r0.90) of NeuroAnimation Therapy on cognitive efficiency. Conclusions This was the first study to investigate the effect of NAT on the processing speed of stroke survivors. Improvement in DANA scores provides evidence that immersive, neuroanimation interventions improve cognitive efficiency for stroke survivors. NAT shows great promise in revolutionizing stroke recovery and warrants further study. Image 1. NeuroAnimation Character Conflict of interest Table 1 - belongs to Results Figure 1 - belongs to Conclusions
Hill et al. (Fri,) studied this question.