Cognitive rehabilitation in the metaverse: insights from the tele-neurorehab project.

Stroke and severe brain injury are the main causes of cognitive impairments resulting from brain damage that more frequently affects the parietal, frontal, midbrain, or brainstem structures. Injuries may be reflected in language, attention, memory, and executive dysfunctions, with a significant impact on daily life activities.After discharge from hospital, patients must undergo a long rehabilitation program to restore their cognitive and motor functions. However, only 25% of them recover completely, and the remaining 75% need constant and profound rehabilitation, varying from weeks to several months or years.1 Cognitive rehabilitation encompasses a wide range of therapeutic cognitive interventions to achieve functional changes for strengthening or reestablishing previously learned patterns of behavior or establishing new patterns of cognitive activities to compensate for impaired neurological systems. Nevertheless, most patients encounter many barriers in receiving medical attention due to geographical or time limitations, or to the loss of motivation in pursuing the rehabilitation, with negative consequences for treatment adherence. 2 Furthermore, in most countries, public hospitals are suffering from an economic crisis, resulting in a limited number of rehabilitators (developments in the health system have led to the number of stroke survivors doubling over the last 30 years). Thus, the healthcare system must be revitalized.