When Mirko Horvat walked into a Vienna laboratory three months after his stroke, he could barely feel his left hand. A year later, he could pinch, grasp, and rotate objects again—and crucially, he felt like the hand belonged to him again. Horvat was one of 34 stroke survivors who tested MultiSensy, a new rehabilitation platform developed by researchers at the Medical University of Vienna and ETH Zurich that merges virtual reality with targeted nerve stimulation. The results, published in Nature Medicine, suggest the technology could nearly double the improvement in arm and hand function compared to conventional therapy alone.
Stroke remains one of the leading causes of long-term disability worldwide. Even after intensive early physiotherapy, countless survivors live for years with reduced limb function, impaired sensation, and distorted body awareness—simply because conventional rehabilitation focuses heavily on movement while giving short shrift to sensation and spatial perception of the affected limb. "After a stroke, patients often have difficulty not only moving the affected limb, but also feeling it and perceiving it correctly," said study leader Stanisa Raspopovic of MedUni Vienna. "MultiSensy was developed to reconnect movement, sensation and body awareness during rehabilitation."
The system works by pairing immersive VR environments with transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. Patients wear VR goggles and perform exercises designed to simulate everyday tasks—reaching, grasping, pinching, rotating—while electrodes on the skin stimulate their nerves in real time. The result: participants feel virtual objects as if they're physically touching them. Inspired by occupational therapy principles, the games adapt to each patient's impairment level, making training both targeted and engaging.
In the randomized clinical trial, participants trained with MultiSensy for 12 sessions over three weeks. A control group received equivalent conventional rehabilitation. Researchers then measured improvements using two standard clinical scales: the Fugl-Meyer Assessment for upper limb motor impairment and the Action Research Arm Test for functional hand use. The MultiSensy group showed nearly twice the improvement on both measures. But perhaps most striking were the gains in sensation and body perception. "Some patients struggle to feel touch in their affected hand and may even perceive the arm as distorted in size, shape or position," said lead author Valerio Aurucci of ETH Zurich. "Participants treated with the new system showed improvements in their sense of touch and in perception of their affected arm."
The platform also collects movement data during training, giving clinicians objective measurements to track recovery. Clinical examinations were supported by a team from the Faculty of Medicine in Belgrade.
For the millions of stroke survivors worldwide living with chronic limb impairment, these results open a door that conventional therapy alone has struggled to open. If larger trials confirm the findings, MultiSensy could make personalized, comprehensive rehabilitation more accessible—helping patients not just move again, but feel whole again.