title: A Feasibility Study with Image-Based Rendered Virtual Reality in Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia.
abstract: Virtual Reality (VR) has emerged as a promising tool in many domains of therapy and rehabilitation, and has recently attracted the attention of researchers and clinicians working with elderly people with MCI, Alzheimer's disease and related disorders. Here we present a study testing the feasibility of using highly realistic image-based rendered VR with patients with MCI and dementia. We designed an attentional task to train selective and sustained attention, and we tested a VR and a paper version of this task in a single-session within-subjects design. Results showed that participants with MCI and dementia reported to be highly satisfied and interested in the task, and they reported high feelings of security, low discomfort, anxiety and fatigue. In addition, participants reported a preference for the VR condition compared to the paper condition, even if the task was more difficult. Interestingly, apathetic participants showed a preference for the VR condition stronger than that of non-apathetic participants. These findings suggest that VR-based training can be considered as an interesting tool to improve adherence to cognitive training in elderly people with cognitive impairment.
authors.affiliation: EA CoBTeK / IA, University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, Nice, France.
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Manera
authors.affiliation: EA CoBTeK / IA, University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, Nice, France.
authors.forename: Emmanuelle
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chapoulie
authors.affiliation: EA CoBTeK / IA, University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, Nice, France.
authors.forename: Jérémy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bourgeois
authors.affiliation: Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique, Sophia Antipolis, France.
authors.forename: Rachid
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Guerchouche
authors.affiliation: EA CoBTeK / IA, University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, Nice, France.|Centre Mémoire de Ressources et de Recherche, CHU de Nice, Nice, France.
authors.forename: Renaud
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: David
authors.affiliation: Disney Research Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.|Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ondrej
authors.affiliation: Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique, Sophia Antipolis, France.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Drettakis
authors.affiliation: EA CoBTeK / IA, University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, Nice, France.|Centre Mémoire de Ressources et de Recherche, CHU de Nice, Nice, France.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Robert
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D057565:Apathy; D001288:Attention; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D003704:Dementia / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D057566:Self Report; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D063367:Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy / Q000379:methods*