Might Avatar-Mediated Interactions Rehabilitate People Suffering from Aphasia?

Many people suffering from communication disabilities after
a brain injury have difficulties coming to terms with their
new self as disabled persons. Being unable to deal with
these problems verbally exacerbates the condition. As a result
they often isolate socially and develop low self-esteem.
Identity-creation and language are strongly linked together
they and there seems to be a lack of addressing identity and
social construction in the communicative rehabilitation.
Immersive virtual worlds (IVW) are becoming ever more
popular in health care and medical training. Experiences
from projects in California and Denmark indicate that there
is a potential for communicative rehabilitation as well. Studies
from Stanford University, California have shown that
behavior in a virtual world might have a spillover effect in
the real world. This paper argues why and how selfrepresentation
and interactions in IVW might trigger relearning
communication and contribute to the recovery of
nerve lanes in the brain after an injury.