Patient Interview: The rehabilitation journey of Vincenzo C.

Vincenzo is a 39 years old who has been treated with MindLenses Professional in spring 2024. He and his father Domenico talked to us about Vincenzo’s improvements following the therapy.

Click below to watch a video version of this interview!

Initial presentation

  • Name: Vincenzo C.
  • Age: 39
  • Diagnosis: cognitive impairment after cerebral hypoxia due to heart failure
  • MindLenses therapy done in: spring 2024
  • Main improvements after MindLenses: significant improvement in short-term memory; caregiver reports heightened levels of alertness and ability to social interaction.

Vincenzo C., 39 years old, lives in Cascina, in the heart of Tuscany, province of Pisa. After a perfectly active and healthy first part of his life – filled with sports, friends, relationships, and work experiences abroad – one evening in September 2019 Vincenzo collapsed on the table at home, where he was preparing dinner for his young daughter. He woke up in the hospital after 15 days of pharmacological-induced coma to a life that needed to be rebuilt from scratch: from the use of his legs – fortunately, as we will see, he will soon be able to walk again – to the big and small activities of daily life.

Vincenzo’s diagnosis is Brugada syndrome, a genetic condition that predisposes to the risk of malignant ventricular arrhythmias. That fateful evening four years ago, heart failure deprived Vincenzo’s brain of oxygen for a few minutes. Emergency care workers managed to revive him with several defibrillator shocks and adrenaline injections.

I came to Vincenzo’s family house in Cascina to have a chat about Vincenzo’s rehabilitation journey, and in particular his experience with MindLenses – the digital therapy for cognitive rehabilitation to which Vincenzo underwent upon recommendation of Dr. Lucia Ferroni, a physiatrist working in the local health service. Together with his father Domenico, Vincenzo introduces himself with a large smile.

“I noticed that during the therapy [with MindLenses Vincenzo] was much more present, much more aware” Domenico’s father say immediatly. Domenico is from Naples, and has an energetic and capable attitude. With a past in the Air Force, he is accustomed to going straight to the point!

But I want to take a step back. While I fiddle with the camera settings and my notes, I ask Vincenzo and Domenico to start from the beginning. How did Vincenzo’s rehabilitation journey begin after the accident?

Vincenzo’s story

After being admitted into the local healthcare system’s path for rehabilitation, Vincenzo encounters additional difficulties. It’s Covid times, and the Versilia Hospital – where Vincenzo had started going for motor and cognitive rehabilitation – is turned in a emergency care unit. All non-essential medical needs are paused. Vincenzo’s family needs to find alternative solutions, and they start doing physiotherapy at home, privately.

“The family does everything” Domenico tells me. “If he had 3 times of physiotherapy a week, I made him do two more.”

Once the lockdowns have passed, Vincenzo resumes rehabilitation in Pisa. During a physiatric visit, Vincenzo and Domenico learn about the work of Dr. Ferroni. They get in touch with her and Vincenzo get prescribed MindLenses therapy.

I try to ask Vincenzo how aware he was of the novelty and scientific backing MindLenses: Professor Olivieri’s research on prismatic adaptation, the clinical trials, the publications.. But Vincenzo, like all patients, simply wanted something to help him and he trusted his doctor. “I came home and said, dad, I started this therapy…” Domenico, always on top of his son’s health, knows a little more, and asks me: “It works because it stimulates the brain, doesn’t it?”

Prismatic adaptation in action. The patient wears a pair of special glasses with prismatic lenses while making a pointing movement with his arm, following a moving target on a tablet’s screen. The procedure lasts about 10 minutes.

Indeed. The prismatic adaptation of the MindLenses protocol acts in a hemisphere-specific manner, setting into motion the side of the brain (right or left) on which the cognitive work needs to be done based on the diagnosis and/or the location of the brain lesion (left hemisphere in Vincenzo’s case). In a typical MindLenses session, the patient first performs prismatic adaptation (approx. 10 minutes), and then plays “Serious Games”, special exercises developed to work systemically with prismatic adaptation, stimulating fronto-parietal neuronal circuits which underlie individual cognitive functions (for example: short-term memory, long-term memory, praxis, language, executive functions…). While most rehabilitation approaches take care of one function at a time, the innovative MindLenses approach acts in a systemic manner. This is more in line with modern neuroscience research which increasingly talks about brain networks, i.e. interconnected areas on whose correct communication cognition depends.

The experience with MindLenses

Vincenzo began the therapy with MindLenses in early spring 2024. The sessions, which are composed of an initial phase of prismatic adaptation followed by serious games, last about an hour and are conducted by dr. Iris Mariotti, speech therapist from Dr. Ferroni’s team.

Vincenzo intent on recreating a MindLenses session at his home.

How was the impact with the therapy – especially with the prismatic lenses?

“The prismatic adaptation part, in which I made the pointing movement while wearing the lenses, lasted about ten minutes every session. Using the lenses was simple, and I never had any problems due to the lenses deviating my eyesight” Vincenzo tells me.

And serious games? How did they help Vincenzo?

Vincenzo: “Now it’s mostly short-term memory that I struggle with the most. I can remember facts from my previous life, but if you ask me what I had for lunch …” “Maybe he’ll remember it after a week” – Domenico completes with a smile.

Short-term memory is one of the aspects that can be worked on with MindLenses, with several exercises dedicated to its reinforcement with letters, numbers, colors and shapes. Dr. Ferroni had told me that it was precisely in the memory domain that Vincenzo made the biggest improvements after MindLenses – even 4 years after the accident, which is a lot in rehabilitation’s terms. I play with Vincenzo’s memory a little by asking him if he remembers some of the exercises he did with MindLenses. Sure enough, he remembers them! For example, he talks about “Semantic Associations”, a reasoning game in which each profession (for example a pilot) must be associated with the correct work tool (for example an airplane).

Vincenzo tells me that he managed to stay motivated for the whole duration of the therapy – also thanks to the games’ embedded dynamic difficulty algorithm which maintains the appropriate difficulty level – the games need to be neither too difficult to cause frustration, nor too easy to disengage the player. Rather, they were built to adapt to the level of ability of Vincenzo, stimulating him in just the correct way.

A fixed-time protocol

I try to assess how many MindLenses sessions Vincenzo has done. The certified clinical protocol – the basis of MindLenses’ clinical trials, for which the most significant improvements were observed – recommends 10 sessions (plus two reserved to neuropsychological evaluation: one upon entry and one after therapy). However, MindLenses is a new therapy, whose “clinical frontier” is constantly evolving. Its boundaries can vary slightly depending on the patient’s clinical situation, and on what the therapist – always the custodian of the final decision – deems as more appropriate. This is why I am not surprised that Vincenzo seems to have underwent some extra MindLenses sessions – a sign that his clinical staff interpreted the therapy based on the needs of the person in front of them: well done!

After briefly discussing the improvements achieved by Vincenzo in the neurological and cognitive fields – Domenico tells us that Vincenzo is better oriented in space, and more able to pay attention to the stimuli of the surrounding environment -, the conversation moves to the activities of daily life and on social relationships. Vincenzo used to have an independent life, without disabilities, which was completely overturned by the cardiac arrest. The recovery of his independence, including in relationships, is the ultimate goal that MindLenses helps to achieve.

I ask Vincenzo what are the things he still needs help with. The answer is above all meal preparation – even if he is able to make coffee and cutting a nice steak by himself. Speaking of daily activities, the discussion turns to playing cards when friends come to visit.

“When our friends come to visit, they notice it too,” says Vincenzo, referring to his improvements. And Domenico adds: “It’s one thing to be a parent – you are with him all the time. But when other people notice the improvements too, – that’s when your positive impressions are confirmed.”

When our friends come to visit, they notice it too

The future ahead

Vincenzo is tall and strong, with clear and kind eyes – eyes that can clearly see the future ahead of him. Yesterday, he walked 13 kilometers – not exactly an everyday distance even for a person without Vincenzo’s remaining motor difficulties, which consist mainly of muscular hypertonicity (muscles can’t relax completely). Vincenzo regularly sees his daughter Chloe (6 years old); he is waiting for his driving license to be renewed; and is ready to get back to work. The second cycle of MindLenses, which will reinforce the benefits obtained in the first cycle, is scheduled for the end of the summer, after a holiday in Sicily.


In our MindLenses Patient Testimonial Series, we interview patients who had a direct experience with MindLenses therapy. They were referred to us by their therapists (medical doctors and health professionals) who can prescrive and administer MindLenses. If you treated a patient with MindLenses and would like to share their story, get in touch!

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