“To reach out, connect and make contact with another person is to feel alive and part of the human race.”
– Wendy Lyons (2010)
One in two stroke survivors lose the ability to feel or recognise everyday objects with their hands.
While traditional rehabilitation helps restore movement after paralysis, survivors often lack a sense of touch. Despite this, rehabilitation of sensory impairment after stroke is relatively neglected.
SENSe, a specialised rehabilitation program, uses world-first therapy to help people regain a sense of touch. The approach is designed to enhance existing connections in the brain and create new ones by using specially designed training strategies, e.g. compare and match sensations felt in the other limb. It is supported by theories of perceptual learning and neural plasticity.
Reference:
Lyons, W. (2010). Left of tomorrow. Melbourne, Australia: Sid Harta Publishers.