Neurocognitive Treatment for a Patient with Alzheimer's Disease Using a Virtual Reality Navigational Environment

Paul J F White, Zahra Moussavi, Paul J F White, Zahra Moussavi

Abstract

In this case study, a man at the onset of Alzheimer's disease (AD) was enrolled in a cognitive treatment program based upon spatial navigation in a virtual reality (VR) environment. We trained him to navigate to targets in a symmetric, landmark-less virtual building. Our research goals were to determine whether an individual with AD could learn to navigate in a simple VR navigation (VRN) environment and whether that training could also bring real-life cognitive benefits. The results show that our participant learned to perfectly navigate to desired targets in the VRN environment over the course of the training program. Furthermore, subjective feedback from his primary caregiver (his wife) indicated that his skill at navigating while driving improved noticeably and that he enjoyed cognitive improvement in his daily life at home. These results suggest that VRN treatments might benefit other people with AD.

Keywords: Alzheimer; cognitive rehabilitation; dementia; spatial navigation; virtual reality.

Conflict of interest statement

Authors disclose no potential conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
VRN Building spatial navigation exercise. Notes: A) Author Paul White uses our custom wheelchair, which captures a user’s real-world motion and translates it to the VRN environment, without the need of a joystick. B) The target window is marked with an X. C) Each of the 16 second- and third-floor windows is assigned a unique letter ID. Window A is the left-hand window at the front of the house on the third floor. D) The elevators to move between floors force participants to turn around. This perturbs participants’ cognitive map.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The participant’s navigation errors over time. The number of errors is divided by the number of trials during each session, because as the treatment progressed, the participant visited more windows within the one-hour time slot. Note a ceiling effect toward the end of training, where the participant was able to find all target windows with no errors. (A) Total navigation errors. (B) Incorrect wall-type navigation errors.

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Source: PubMed

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