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Using a virtual environment to assess cognition in the elderly

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Abstract

Early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is essential if treatments are to be administered at an earlier point in time before neurons degenerate to a stage beyond repair. In order for early detection to occur tools used to detect the disorder must be sensitive to the earliest of cognitive impairments. Virtual reality technology offers opportunities to provide products which attempt to mimic daily life situations, as much as is possible, within the computational environment. This may be useful for the detection of cognitive difficulties. We develop a virtual simulation designed to assess visuospatial memory in order to investigate cognitive function in a group of healthy elderly participants and those with a mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Participants were required to guide themselves along a virtual path to reach a virtual destination which they were required to remember. The preliminary results indicate that this virtual simulation has the potential to be used for detection of early AD since significant correlations of scores on the virtual environment with existing neuropsychological tests were found. Furthermore, the test discriminated between healthy elderly participants and those with a MCI.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude to the School of Computing, Informatics and Media, School of Social and International Studies, Rebecca Durrans in the Division of Psychology, University of Bradford and University of Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA) for the support and facilities provided. We also thank Nick Farrar from Adult and Community Services at Bradford Metropolitan District Council and all the participants for taking part.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Psychology, School of Social and International Studies, University of Bradford, Bradford, BD7 1DP, UK

    Valerie E. Lesk & Elizabeth R. Walters

  2. School of Informatics and Computing, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Syadiah Nor Wan Shamsuddin

  3. School of Computing, Informatics and Media, University of Bradford, Bradford, BD7 1DP, UK

    Hassan Ugail

Authors
  1. Valerie E. Lesk
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  2. Syadiah Nor Wan Shamsuddin
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  3. Elizabeth R. Walters
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  4. Hassan Ugail
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Correspondence to Elizabeth R. Walters.

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Lesk, V.E., Wan Shamsuddin, S.N., Walters, E.R. et al. Using a virtual environment to assess cognition in the elderly. Virtual Reality 18, 271–279 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-014-0252-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-014-0252-2

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