Senaptec Sensory Training
The eyes are truly the window to the brain. We rely on the vision system as a key player in a holistic approach to understanding and healing the body.
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The Senaptec Sensory Station evaluation measures visual, cognitive, and visuomotor skills that are impacted by many brain health conditions. Brain diseases may present differently in every person. Senaptec’s assessments establish a broad and comprehensive overview of the brain’s ability to receive, interpret, and respond to the world around them. The ability to baseline visual skills before therapy begins can provide clinicians with a critical benchmark to which brain healing over time can be compared. The sensory exercise modules on the Sensory Station address functions such as visual neglect, visual motor integration, visual field skills, oculomotor control, and the coordination of peripheral / central vision.
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The Senaptec Strobe eyewear has preset modes that can be customized with a smartphone app. This gives practitioners the freedom to create customized stimuli to meet your clients’ specific needs and/or address any barriers to healing. Using the Senaptec Quad Strobe eyewear, you can isolate the visual field areas receiving the stroboscopic stimulus. Our customers have used this technology to address partial visual loss conditions such as hemianopsia.
The Senaptec App allows you to leverage self-care home rehabilitation and expanding telehealth opportunities by putting the power of our innovative technologies in your patients’ homes. The customized sensory exercise plan allows your patient to get real-time performance feedback on specific rehabilitation areas you assign. Via a proctor portal, the app utilizes our secure cloud technology to manage the data and allows you to check on your patients’ activity and modify their training plans as their ability improves.
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In addition to brain health, we also use Senaptec sensory training for the following conditions:
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TBI & Concussion
The majority of brain function is dedicated to visual processing and those suffering from a concussion will overwhelmingly experience ocular, visual, balance, and/or cognitive problems. These difficulties may delay recovery if not adequately addressed. Common concussion symptoms affect eye focusing, eye movements, blurred or double vision, light sensitivity, concentration, and balance.
For many who suffer a traumatic brain injury across its spectrum, there is a functional miscommunication between the peripheral and central processing systems. These are two different processing centers in the brain. If there is misalignment, a host of problems can result, such as nausea, lack of coordination, poor spatial awareness, etc. Creating a re-alignment of the peripheral and central systems is important for many concussion/TBI patients.
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The Senaptec Sensory Station provides several therapy modules that are designed to exercise the central/peripheral vision systems. These include Eye-Hand Coordination, Go/No-Go, Perception Span, Dynamic Vision, Split Attention, and Multiple Object Tracking.
The Senaptec Quad Strobe eyewear can be used to address central/peripheral misalignment by adjusting the ratio of information allowed through the peripheral versus central regions of the vision. To start, the eyewear can be used with full bi-nasal occlusion. This approach can help the individual regain capability in the peripheral vision, which research shows are a foundational step in the healing process.
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Vision Therapy
The Senaptec Sensory Station evaluation can measure visual, cognitive, and visuomotor skills that could be impacted by visual conditions addressed in vision therapy. The ability to baseline visual skills before therapy begins provides a tool to show improvements gained from vision therapy. In addition to the baseline 10 fundamental vision skills, the modules on the Sensory Station address functions such as visual neglect, visual-motor integration, visual field skills, oculomotor control, and the coordination of peripheral/central vision.
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The Senaptec Strobe eyewear can be controlled with a mobile app that can also be used to customize the settings of the Senaptec Strobes. This gives you the freedom to create modes for the particular needs and/or the condition of the client. Instead of the traditional patching, you can set the Strobes to vary how much vision the dominant and non-dominant eyes receive from the world. The Senaptec Strobe can flicker in a left/right alternating pattern, which some practitioners use to address amblyopia.
Stroke
Stroke is a leading cause of disability in the United States. Approximately 2/3 of stroke survivors experience vision impairment. These vision impairments are often a lasting degraded condition with functional consequences. Stroke survivors also experience impaired peripheral proprioception, which can lead to over-dependence on visual information. These losses can result in postural instability and balance loss that adversely affects stroke survivor independence and health outcomes.
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The Senaptec Sensory Station evaluation can measure visual, cognitive, and visuomotor skills that are impacted by a stroke. The sensory exercise modules on the Sensory Station address functions such as visual neglect, visual-motor integration, visual field skills, oculomotor control, and the coordination of peripheral/central vision.
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The Senaptec Quad Strobe eyewear has the lenses segmented into quadrants, with the center intersection aligned with the pupil at primary gaze. Each quadrant’s opacity and clear state can be independently customized to the occluding spatial and temporal patterns desired. By customizing this pattern, a practitioner selects which visual pathway(s) to the brain information is allowed to travel, thereby activating certain parts of the visual cortex and not others. For example, a patient with hemianopsia could utilize the Senaptec Quad Strobe with lateral or medial sides occluded. The Senaptec Quad Strobe can also induce sensory re-weighting by limiting your complete vision - both central and peripheral vision. Limiting peripheral vision limits spatial reference to the visual world, which causes the wearer to be more dependent on somatosensory information to maintain postural control.
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Joint Injury Rehabilitation
When a person suffers a musculoskeletal injury such as an ACL rupture, it is also a neuromuscular injury. The injury causes a change in how the brain generates motion around that joint, and the information it relies on to prevent subsequent injury. The patient becomes more dependent on vision and less on other important proprioceptive stimuli. The recurrence rate of musculoskeletal injuries is high because while muscle strength and range of motion may have been restored, the interrupted neuromuscular pathway has not. It is not uncommon in some pathologies (e.g., chronic ankle instability) for practitioners to address sensory reweighting issues in their patients.
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The Senaptec Sensory Station evaluation can show the visual and sensory abilities of an injured person compared to normative data for the person’s specific population. Senaptec’s database of athletes across sport, position, and competition level shows the relative status of the injured athlete. The exercise modules on the Senaptec Sensory Station provides the injured athlete with sensory integration training.
The Senaptec Strobe eyewear is an ideal tool for restoring neuromuscular pathways. By limiting visual information while performing an activity that requires balance control, the brain is forced to reweight sensory strategies by focusing more on proprioception for balance and position. Instead of assigning just eyes-open or eyes-closed tasks, the Senaptec Strobe eyewear provides an adjustable spectrum between sight and no sight which also allows the clinician to add a secondary task.
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Parkinson's Disease
Visual impairment is common in Parkinson’s disease and deficits impact mobility, balance and ultimately increase fall risk. Visual deficits range from a decline in basic visual function and oculomotor control to more complex vision issues. All deficits limit independence and reduce the quality of life. Recognizing visual disorders and implementing tailored interventions is essential to enhancing visual function, balance, and preventing falls in Parkinson’s disease patients.
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The Senaptec Sensory Station evaluation provides a way to efficiently measure visual and visuomotor skills that could be impacted by Parkinson’s disease. The sensory exercise modules are designed to engage visual memory, oculomotor control, eye-hand coordination, and other neuromotor pathways affected by the disease.
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The Senaptec Quad Strobe eyewear can be used to induce sensory reweighting by reducing visual pathways, such as central and peripheral vision. Limiting peripheral vision limits spatial reference to the visual world, which causes the wearer to be more dependent on somatosensory information to maintain postural control.
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