Gaze and Go: Harnessing Visual Attention Valence in Upper-Limb Robotic Rehabilitation With Tailored Gamification and Eye Tracking for Neuroplasticity

Abstract

Therapeutic robotic systems have emerged as reliable tools for physical rehabilitation, providing variableintensity movement assistance to patients with motor impairments. Robot-assisted rehabilitation facilitates the restoration mobility and dexterity, promotes functional neuroplasticity and potentially enables workforce reentry through training-induced cognitive and motor learning. To boost participant engagement and visuomotor coordination, we propose ArmGuider Pro, an advanced upper-limb training system that integrates hand-eye collaboration and gazetriggered assistance within rehabilitation-tailored serious games. The system implements intuitive eye-tracking and visualtriggering strategies to align therapeutic interventions with participants' intentional focus, incorporating immersive gaming elements and adaptive control algorithms. Experimental validation demonstrates significant activation in motor and cognitive cerebral cortex regions, enhanced visual attention concentration in desired target areas (25.92 % improvement), and improved trajectory adherence across sequential sessions (27.27 % improvement). By harnessing visual attention valence, our proposed system could encourage neuroplasticity, supporting its viability for clinical application and widespread adaption in rehabilitation regimens.