Virtual Reality Training for Aphasia Rehabilitation (Aphasia360)

March 17, 2026 updated by: Claudia Repetto, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart

Anomias Rehabilitation Training Through 360° Videos

Aphasia is an acquired deficit following acute damage to the central nervous system that involves the difficulty or impossibility of understanding and formulating language. A typical disorder of non-fluent forms of aphasia is anomia. Anomia refers to the difficulty in finding words, in particular when trying to name objects and actions. According to the Embodied Cognition approach (EC), language is tightly connected to the motor system. In this view, language rehabilitation programs should stimulate language through the activation of the motor system. In this approach, since anomic deficits are often due to a weak link between the meaning of the word and its lemma, the Hebbs' principles of coincident and correlated learning can be exploited, i.e., by intensifying the synchronous activation of lexicon and semantics and connecting them with the motor counterpart. In this study, the investigators present an innovative training, based on the EC framework, in which they will make use of new technologies for anomia rehabilitation in post-stroke patients. Specifically, the researchers will use immersive 360° videos representing everyday actions displayed from the first-person point of view, experienced through a head-mounted display. The training will be administered 3 times a week for 4 weeks. The control group will watch standard videos representing the same actions recorded from the third-person perspective. Naming abilities will be tested before and after the training together with other cognitive and psychological measures. The investigators expect that the group who will undergo the 360° video-based training will show greater improvement of performance compared to the control group.

Study Overview

Status

Suspended

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

40

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Italy
    • Brescia
      • Brescia, Brescia, Italy, 25123
        • Poliambulanza

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 80 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • naming disorder in the post-acute phase (index event occurring at least 6 months earlier)
  • to have already received rehabilitation treatment in the acute phase
  • noun naming below cut-off
  • verbs naming below cut- off

Exclusion Criteria:

  • concomitant or pre-existing (with respect to the index event) neurological and psychiatric deficits
  • epilepsy
  • balance disorders
  • neglect

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Video 360
Patients will watch spherical videos displaying everyday actions towards objects; an audio is embedded describing the action and the object represented (i.e. "I'm cutting the potatoes").
Behavioral: Video 360
Patients will undergo 12 sessions, 3 per weeks, 4 weeks
Active Comparator: Standard video
Patients will watch standard videos displaying everyday actions towards objects; an audio is embedded describing the action and the object represented (i.e. "I'm cutting the potatoes")
Behavioral: Standard videos
Patients will undergo 12 sessions, 3 per weeks, 4 weeks

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Number of verbs and objects correctly named
Time Frame: post treatment, 1 month
All the trained videos will be presented and the patient will be asked to name the verb and the object depicted. The accuracy will be registered
post treatment, 1 month

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Batteria per l'Analisi dei Deficit Afasici (BADA), naming subtest
Time Frame: post treatment, 1 month
It is an Italian validated neuropsychological battery aiming at testing all the language abilities. It includes several tests tapping into the different linguistic abilities, but for the purpose of the present study only the verb and object naming subtest will be administered. Higher scores indicate greater naming abilities
post treatment, 1 month
EuroQol Health-related quality of life (EQ-5D-3L)
Time Frame: post treatment, 1 month
The test consists of 2 sections. The first one is made of 5 questions scored from 1 to 5 points each. The final score ranges from 5 to 15, where the lesser the better. The second section is a visual scale on which the best state the patient can imagine is marked 100 and the worst state is marked 0.
post treatment, 1 month
Functional Outcome Questionnaire (FOQ-A)
Time Frame: post treatment, 1 month
The survey is administered to the caregiver. It includes 32 questions each scored from 1 to 5 points. The final scores ranges from 32 to 160, where higher scores indicate greater communication abilities
post treatment, 1 month

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Catholic University of the Sacred Heart

Collaborators

Fondazione Poliambulanza

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Claudia Repetto, Prof, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

May 2, 2023

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 31, 2025

Study Completion (Estimated)

March 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 7, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 20, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

March 31, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 19, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 17, 2026

Last Verified

September 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • UC

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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