Serious games for cognitive rehabilitation: Forms of interaction and social dimension

Rehabilitation processes follow, as a rule, intensive training programs, composed of repetitive and monotonous tasks for patients. The introduction of serious games in these processes can help in motivating patients, increasing their interest in the exercises to perform. These games should be set taking into account characteristics that are able to stimulate and train cognitive functions as well as features that require some kind of motor activity in order to stimulate and attract patients´ attention. This article presents a literature review on serious games for cognitive rehabilitation and a set of characteristics that are considered important for serious game development in this area which include the use of natural and multimodal interfaces and a social dimension such as collaboration, competition and the concept of handicap.