Introduction: The therapeutic structure of occupational therapy (OT) includes groups. Although the presence of others is expected to be relaxing due to the social buffering effect and the tend and befriend theory, it has not been sufficiently validated in accordance with the therapeutic structure of OT. The aim of this study was to investigate the electrophysiological evidence for the effectiveness of parallel groups and states of concentration on craft activities used in OT. Methods: Thirty healthy young adults were used as controls to measure EEG and autonomic activity during craft activities in three conditions: alone, parallel, and nonparallel. EEG was analyzed using exact low-resolution electromagnetic tomography, and autonomic activity was analyzed using Lorenz plot analysis. Results: Parasympathetic activity was significantly higher in the parallel condition than in the alone condition. A significant negative correlation was found between current source density and parasympathetic activity in the region centered on the right insular cortex in the α1 band, and functional connectivity in regions including the anterior cingulate cortex and insular cortex was associated with autonomic activity. Conclusion: Craft activities that occurred during frontal midline theta rhythm also increased parasympathetic activity. The results suggest that the parallel groups used in OT and the intensive state of craft activities induce a social buffering effect that increases parasympathetic activity despite the absence of physical contact or social support. This provides evidence for the effectiveness of the therapeutic structure of occupational activities and groups in OT.

Empowerment scales for inpatients have been developed worldwide, but their validity and reliability have not been adequately tested and applied to the health promotion and care among older adults during hospitalization. In this study, the Patient Empowerment Scale developed by Faulkner was translated into Japanese, and Japanese patients were surveyed to test its clinical applicability. To test its applicability, 151 patients in rehabilitation wards were surveyed in four municipalities. After considering ceiling/floor effects and validating the structure, the Patient Empowerment Scale—Japanese comprised 37 items and six factors: subject–staff interaction, environmental adjustment through collaboration, necessary information gathering and problem awareness, proactive behavioral practices, self-disclosure, and self-management of activities. Criteria-related validity assessment confirmed the scale’s correlation with the Health Locus of Control Scale, General Self-Efficacy Scale, 13-item Sense of Coherence Scale, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale. Regarding internal consistency, the Cronbach’s alpha was 0.93 for all 37 items. The Cronbach’s alphas for the six factors were 0.93, 0.91, 0.92, 0.92, 0.91, and 0.75, respectively. In our test/re-test of reliability, Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient between the first and second total scores was ρ = 0.96, p < 0.01. These results confirm the scale’s validity and reliability, and its applicability to older hospitalized patients.

Physiological studies have shown that self-body images receive unique recognition processing in a wide range of brain areas, from the frontal lobe to the parietal-occipital cortex. Event-related potential (ERP) studies have shown that the self-referential effect on the image of a hand increases P300 components, but such studies do not evaluate brain oscillatory activity. In this study, we aimed to discover the self-specific brain electrophysiological activity in relation to hand images. ERPs on the fronto-parietal midline were elicited by a three-stimulus visual oddball task using hand images: the self-hand, another hand (most similar to the self-hand), and another hand (similar to the self-hand). We analyzed ERP waveform and brain oscillatory activity by simple averaging and time-frequency analysis. The simple averaging analysis found no significant differences between the responses for the three stimulus tasks in all time windows. However, time-frequency analysis showed that self-hand stimuli elicited high gamma ERS in 650–900 ms at the Cz electrode compared to other hand stimuli. Our results show that brain activity specific to the self-referential process to the self-hand image was reflected in the long latency gamma band activity in the mid-central region. This high gamma-band activity at the Cz electrode may be similar to the activity of the mirror neuron system, which is involved in hand motion.

As a method for evaluating the unilateral spatial neglect that occurs as a sequela of cerebral infarction, a system combining a display with a touch panel and a line-of-sight tracking device has been proposed. However, movement of the head cannot be avoided, and the measurement accuracy of the line of sight is not sufficient. Therefore, in this research, we propose an application of smartphonebased virtual reality as a tool for evaluating unilateral spatial neglect. Because it is realized as an application on a smartphone, it can be easily used at low cost, and it can be expected to be used in day clinics and in at-home medical care. In this study, we evaluated the system for patients and therapists by actually using the proposed system.1 CCS CONCEPTS • Applied computing → Health care information systems • Human-centered computing → Mobile phones