Sensorimotor experience in virtual environments

The goal of rehabilitation is to reduce impairment and provide functional improvements resulting in quality participation in activities of life, Plasticity and motor learning principles provide inspiration for therapeutic interventions including movement repetition in a virtual reality environment, The objective of this research work was to investigate functional specific measurements (kinematic, behavioral) and neural correlates of motor experience of hand gesture activities in virtual environments stimulating sensory experience (VE) using a hand agent model. The fMRI compatible Virtual Environment Sign Language Instruction (VESLI) System was designed and developed to provide a number of rehabilitation and measurement features, to identify optimal learning conditions for individuals and to track changes in performance over time. Therapies and measurements incorporated into VESLI target and track specific impairments underlying dysfunction. The goal of improved measurement is to develop targeted interventions embedded in higher level tasks and to accurately track specific gains to understand the responses to treatment, and the impact the response may have upon higher level function such as participation in life. To further clarify the biological model of motor experiences and to understand the added value and role of virtual sensory stimulation and feedback which includes seeing one\u27s own hand movement, functional brain mapping was conducted with simultaneous kinematic analysis in healthy controls and in stroke subjects. It is believed that through the understanding of these neural activations, rehabilitation strategies advantaging the principles of plasticity and motor learning will become possible. The present research assessed successful practice conditions promoting gesture learning behavior in the individual. For the first time, functional imaging experiments mapped neural correlates of human interactions with complex virtual reality hands avatars moving synchronously with the subject\u27s own hands, Findings indicate that healthy control subjects learned intransitive gestures in virtual environments using the first and third person avatars, picture and text definitions, and while viewing visual feedback of their own hands, virtual hands avatars, and in the control condition, hidden hands. Moreover, exercise in a virtual environment with a first person avatar of hands recruited insular cortex activation over time, which might indicate that this activation has been associated with a sense of agency. Sensory augmentation in virtual environments modulated activations of important brain regions associated with action observation and action execution. Quality of the visual feedback was modulated and brain areas were identified where the amount of brain activation was positively or negatively correlated with the visual feedback, When subjects moved the right hand and saw unexpected response, the left virtual avatar hand moved, neural activation increased in the motor cortex ipsilateral to the moving hand This visual modulation might provide a helpful rehabilitation therapy for people with paralysis of the limb through visual augmentation of skills. A model was developed to study the effects of sensorimotor experience in virtual environments, and findings of the effect of sensorimotor experience in virtual environments upon brain activity and related behavioral measures. The research model represents a significant contribution to neuroscience research, and translational engineering practice, A model of neural activations correlated with kinematics and behavior can profoundly influence the delivery of rehabilitative services in the coming years by giving clinicians a framework for engaging patients in a sensorimotor environment that can optimally facilitate neural reorganization

Realidad virtual para el entrenamiento de la cognición social en esquizofrenia

El deterioro en la cognición social determina una gran parte de la pérdida del funcionamiento y la calidad de vida de los pacientes que sufren de esquizofrenia. En los últimos años, se han desarrollado diferentes intervenciones dirigidas a la mejora de la cognición social, con resultados prometedores en términos de cognición social, habilidades sociales y funcionamiento social. Algunas de estas intervenciones utilizan la realidad virtual (RV) como herramienta básica de trabajo. La presente tesis tiene como objetivo general investigar el área de las nuevas intervenciones psicoterapéuticas basadas en RV dirigidas a la mejora de los déficits en cognición social de los pacientes con esquizofrenia. El trabajo incluye ocho artículos de revista, estructurados en cinco secciones. Los dos primeros artículos contienen revisiones sistemáticas de mapeo sobre las intervenciones psicoterapéuticas y farmacológicas dirigidas a la mejora de la cognición social en cualquier patología. De dichos artículos se desprende que existe un interés creciente en ambos tipos de intervención, especialmente en el área de la esquizofrenia..

RC2S: A Cognitive Remediation Program to Improve Social Cognition in Schizophrenia and Related Disorders

In people with psychiatric disorders, particularly those suffering from schizophrenia and related illnesses, pronounced difficulties in social interactions are a key manifestation. These difficulties can be partly explained by impairments in social cognition, defined as the ability to understand oneself and others in the social world, which includes abilities such as emotion recognition, theory of mind (ToM), attributional style, and social perception and knowledge. The impact of several kinds of interventions on social cognition has been studied recently. The best outcomes in the area of social cognition in schizophrenia are those obtained by way of cognitive remediation programs. New strategies and programs in this line are currently being developed, such as RC2S (cognitive remediation of social cognition) in Lyon, France. Considering that the social cognitive deficits experienced by patients with schizophrenia are very diverse, and that the main objective of social cognitive remediation programs is to improve patients’ functioning in their daily social life, RC2S was developed as an individualized and flexible program that allows patients to practice social interaction in a realistic environment through the use of virtual reality techniques. In the RC2S program, the patient’s goal is to assist a character named Tom in various social situations. The underlying idea for the patient is to acquire cognitive strategies for analyzing social context and emotional information in order to understand other characters’ mental states and to help Tom manage his social interactions. In this paper, we begin by presenting some data regarding the social cognitive impairments found in schizophrenia and related disorders, and we describe how these deficits are targeted by social cognitive remediation. Then we present the RC2S program and discuss the advantages of computer-based simulation to improve social cognition and social functioning in people with psychiatric disorders

Proceedings of the 3rd IUI Workshop on Interacting with Smart Objects

These are the Proceedings of the 3rd IUI Workshop on Interacting with Smart Objects. Objects that we use in our everyday life are expanding their restricted interaction capabilities and provide functionalities that go far beyond their original functionality. They feature computing capabilities and are thus able to capture information, process and store it and interact with their environments, turning them into smart objects

Assessing Executive Function Impairments and Comorbidity between ADHD and Stuttering

Stuttering and ADHD are often considered ‘comorbid’ because different types of symptoms and processing issues occur in, for example, fluency, attention and working memory. This thesis addresses whether or not these shared factors signify fundamental similarities between stuttering and ADHD that distinguish them from typical controls. This is done in two main ways: First, a comparison is made of details of performance on attention capabilities using a range of behavioural and physiological measures in various test environments, including Web and VR approaches; Second, modelling analyses are conducted that compare networks representing participants’ performance across groups. Using the Load Theory of Attention methodology (Chapter 2), which addresses how to focus attention and ignore distractions up to a point where load exceeds perceptual capacity, it was observed that the performance of participants who stutter was significantly lower from the performance of controls in the auditory selective and divided attention tasks. The results showed that tasks in which attention demands enhanced were effective in detecting limitations in audio processing by PWS. Extending the task in the visual, audio and audio-visual domains in a virtual reality environment in people who stutter, (PWS) as well as people with ADHD (PWADHD) it was found that while audio was more affected in PWS, audio and audio-visual domains were affected in PWADHD. Lastly, Network Models (NMs) from the measures examined showed that comorbidity between PWS and PWADHD is limited. For better clinical assessments of attention, fluency and working memory problems, a Linear Mixed Model (LMM) was included in chapter 3 to understand if gender imbalance affected the results of PWS, PWADHD and controls in a selective attention task. LMM correctly determined that the gender imbalance did not affect the participants performance and PWS performed significantly worse from PWADHD showing that the groups were not comorbid and PWS is impaired in selective attention tasks. Further investigations were made in chapter 4 on PWS, PWADHD and controls in which data collected was extended to behavioural as well as physiological measures in a selective attention task implemented in a Virtual Reality (VR) environment. Although both PWS and PWADHD differed from controls with lower performance on the task, impulsive behaviours were only present in PWADHD (higher NOF) while inattentiveness was observed only in PWS (lower FD, higher theta activity). The architecture of NMs was different between PWS and PWADHD in task performance confirming again that comorbidity between groups is overstated while the frontal cortex is impaired in both groups as shown by NMs from EEG measures. While previous chapters showed that selective and divided attention tasks in Executive Function (EF) can correctly assess attention problems in PWS, chapters 5, 6 and 7 aimed at understanding which attention type in EF is impaired in PWADHD and can correctly assess attention problems in this group. An extensive investigation was made from 10 VR tasks that drew upon different attention types on behavioural measures and responses from questionnaires (chapter 5), eye measures (chapter 6) and brain activity (chapter 7). PWADHD were compared to controls on all the measures. NMs showed that sustained attention tasks in all domains and switched attention task only in the visual domain assessed ADHD traits in PWADHD on the measures examined. Furthermore, prefrontal cortex was impaired as shown from NMs in EEG measures. Finally, NMs were compared between controls, PWADHD and PWS in chapter 8 on cognitive factors including attention, fluency and working memory. NMs confirmed previous findings that the comorbidity of symptoms of both disorders is overstated. NM architecture between controls and PWADHD was similar, but both differed from PWS. Working memory was a strong factor that affected attention in all groups but the way it affected attention differed between PWS and PWADHD

Autism, new music technologies and cognition

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2006.Page 108 blank.Includes bibliographical references (p. 99-107).Central coherence accounts of autism have shown dysfunction in the processing of local versus global information that may be the source of symptoms in social behavior, communication and repetitive behavior. An application was developed to measure cognitive abilities in central coherence tasks as part of a music composition task. The application was evaluated in collaboration with the Spotlight Program, an interdisciplinary social pragmatics program for children with Asperger's syndrome. This research indicates that it is possible to embed cognitive measure as part of a novel music application. Implications for current treatment interventions, and longitudinal experimentation designs are presented.by Adam Boulanger.S.M

Towards the use of visual masking within virtual environments to induce changes in affective cognition

This thesis concerns the use of virtual environments for psychotherapy. It makes use of virtual environment properties that go beyond real-world simulation. The core technique used is based on research found within perception science, an effect known as backwards visual masking. Here, a rapidly displayed target image is rendered explicitly imperceptible via the subsequent display of a masking image. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the potential of visual masking within virtual environments to induce changes in affective cognition. Of particular importance would be changes in a positive direction as this could form the foundation of a psychotherapeutic tool to treat affect disorders and other conditions with an affective component. The initial pair of experiments looked at whether visual masking was possible within virtual environments, whether any measurable behavioural influence could be found and whether there was any evidence that affective cognitions could be influenced. It was found that the technique worked and could influence both behaviour and affective cognition. Following this, two experiments looked further at parameter manipulation of visual masking within virtual environments with the aim of better specifying the parameter values. Results indicated that the form of visual masking used worked better in a virtual environment when the target and mask were both highly textured and that affective effects were modulated by the number of exposures of the target. The final pair of experiments attempted to induce an affect contagion effect and an affect cognition-modification effect. An affect cognition-modification effect was found whereas an affect contagion effect was not. Overall, the results show that using visual masking techniques within virtual environments to induce affect cognition changes has merit. The thesis lays the foundation for further work and supports the use of this technique as basis of an intervention tool

Attention and Social Cognition in Virtual Reality:The effect of engagement mode and character eye-gaze

Technical developments in virtual humans are manifest in modern character design. Specifically, eye gaze offers a significant aspect of such design. There is need to consider the contribution of participant control of engagement. In the current study, we manipulated participants’ engagement with an interactive virtual reality narrative called Coffee without Words. Participants sat over coffee opposite a character in a virtual café, where they waited for their bus to be repaired. We manipulated character eye-contact with the participant. For half the participants in each condition, the character made no eye-contact for the duration of the story. For the other half, the character responded to participant eye-gaze by making and holding eye contact in return. To explore how participant engagement interacted with this manipulation, half the participants in each condition were instructed to appraise their experience as an artefact (i.e., drawing attention to technical features), while the other half were introduced to the fictional character, the narrative, and the setting as though they were real. This study allowed us to explore the contributions of character features (interactivity through eye-gaze) and cognition (attention/engagement) to the participants’ perception of realism, feelings of presence, time duration, and the extent to which they engaged with the character and represented their mental states (Theory of Mind). Importantly it does so using a highly controlled yet ecologically valid virtual experience