System development guidelines from a review of motion-based technology for people with MCI or dementia

As the population ages and the number of people living with dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) continues to increase, it is critical to identify creative and innovative ways to support and improve their quality of life. Motion-based technology has shown significant potential for people living with dementia or MCI by providing opportunities for cognitive stimulation, physical activity and participation in meaningful leisure activities, while simultaneously functioning as a useful tool for research and development of interventions. However, many of the current systems created using motion-based technology have not been designed specifically for people with dementia or MCI. Additionally, the usability and accessibility of these systems for these populations has not been thoroughly considered. This paper presents a set of system development guidelines derived from a review of the state of the art of motion-based technologies for people with dementia or MCI. These guidelines highlight three overarching domains of consideration for systems targeting people with dementia or MCI: (i) cognitive, (ii) physical, and (iii) social. We present the guidelines in terms of relevant design and use considerations within these domains and the emergent design themes within each domain. Our hope is that these guidelines will aid in designing motion-based software to meet the needs of people with dementia or MCI such that the potential of these technologies can be realized

Recommendations for the use of Serious Games in people with Alzheimer's Disease, related disorders and frailty.

International audienceAlzheimer's disease and other related disorders (ADRD) represent a major challenge for health care systems within the aging population. It is therefore important to develop better instruments to assess the disease severity and progression, as well as to improve its treatment, stimulation, and rehabilitation. This is the underlying idea for the development of Serious Games (SG). These are digital applications specially adapted for purposes other than entertaining; such as rehabilitation, training and education. Recently, there has been an increase of interest in the use of SG targeting patients with ADRD. However, this field is completely uncharted, and the clinical, ethical, economic and research impact of the employment of SG in these target populations has never been systematically addressed. The aim of this paper is to systematically analyze the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) of employing SG with patients with ADRD in order to provide practical recommendations for the development and use of SG in these populations. These analyses and recommendations were gathered, commented on and validated during a 2-round workshop in the context of the 2013 Clinical Trial of Alzheimer's Disease (CTAD) conference, and endorsed by stakeholders in the field. The results revealed that SG may offer very useful tools for professionals involved in the care of patients suffering from ADRD. However, more interdisciplinary work should be done in order to create SG specifically targeting these populations. Furthermore, in order to acquire more academic and professional credibility and acceptance, it will be necessary to invest more in research targeting efficacy and feasibility. Finally, the emerging ethical challenges should be considered a priority

A study of virtual reality-mediated affective state and cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease

NeuroscienceLa démence de type d’Alzheimer est la plus commune des démences. Elle entraîne un déclin dans les capacités cognitives et fonctionnelles, se traduisant dans des difficultés au niveau de la prise de décision, de l’accomplissement de tâches quotidiennes, de la communication ainsi qu’au niveau de la mémoire et de l’attention. On remarque également une diminution de l’état émotionnel et une apathie chez ces patients. Ce mémoire explore une nouvelle approche pour atténuer les effets psychologiques et cognitifs de la maladie. Les recherches effectuées dans ce mémoire explorent les impacts cognitifs et les effets sur le bien-être d'une intervention utilisant la réalité virtuelle sur les personnes souffrant de déclin cognitif subjectif. Deux environnements virtuels ont été testés : le premier étant un environnement dans lequel le participant voyage en train à travers différents climats, et le second étant un environnement de musicothérapie qui s’adapte en fonction de la réponse émotionnelle du participant. Pour mesurer les impacts sur l'état affectif, des lectures électroencéphalographiques ont été prises et analysées afin de déduire l'émotion ressentie par le participant avant, pendant et après l'expérience. Les résultats montrent une amélioration générale de l'état émotionnel pour les deux environnements. Quant à la mesure des effets sur les fonctions cognitives, des tâches d'attention et de mémoire ont été effectuées par les participants avant et après l'immersion. Les résultats montrent une légère amélioration des capacités d'attention et une meilleure amélioration de la mémoire. Nous approprions cet écart dans l'expérience de musicothérapie à l'activation musicale d'un réseau de structures cérébrales impliquées dans les expériences agréables : le circuit de récompense. Nous proposons que la musique facilite la rétention de la mémoire chez les personnes souffrant de démence. En effet, les résultats de l’amélioration des fonctions cognitives pour les deux expériences précédentes dépendent fortement de la précision de l'outil de mesure cognitive utilisé pour évaluer les performances d'attention et de mémoire avant et après l'intervention. Pour assurer cette précision, ce mémoire présente un outil de mesure des performances cognitives basé sur des tâches cognitives qui ont montré à plusieurs reprises leur fiabilité. Cet outil d’adresse aux personnes atteintes de la maladie d'Alzheimer pré-clinique et diagnostiquée.Alzheimer’s disease is an irreversible disease which causes progressive memory loss and cognitive decline, eventually leading to severe inability to perform basic day-to-day tasks. The urgency to find an effective cure to the disease is crucial, as the medical and economical spin-offs could be disastrous. The present thesis explores a novel approach to help attenuate the psychological and cognitive effects of the disease. The research carried out for this thesis explored cognitive effects and impacts on overall well-being of a virtual reality intervention on people suffering from subjective cognitive decline. Two virtual environments were tested: the first being an environment in which the participant travels through different climates by train, and the second being a music therapy environment modified as a function of emotional response. To measure the effects on affective state, electroencephalography readings were taken and analyzed to infer the emotion felt by the participant before, during the experiment. Results show a general improvement in emotional state. To measure the effects of the environments on cognitive functions, attention and memory tasks were carried out by the participants before and after the immersion. Results show a small improvement in attention skills and a more substantial improvement in memory skills. We appropriate this discrepancy in the music therapy experiment to the musical activation of a network of brain structures involved in rewarding and pleasurable experiences. We propose that music could facilitate memory retention in people sufferance for dementia. Importantly, the results of the previous experiments rely heavily on the accuracy of the cognitive measurement tool used to evaluate attention and memory performances before and after the intervention. To provide this accuracy, this thesis presents a cognitive performance measurement tool based on cognitive tasks which have repeatedly shown to output reliable results. This tool is created to serve for people with pre-clinical Alzheimer’s disease and diagnosed Alzheimer’s disease. Additionally, this tool is designed in such a way as to minimize the effects of repetition as well as varying levels of education and language. This thesis presents a novel and promising research in the realms of computer sciences and health care

User experience of interactive technologies for people with dementia: comparative observational study

Background: Serious games (SGs) are used as complementary approaches to stimulate patients with dementia. However, many of the SGs use out-of-the-shelf technologies that may not always be suitable for such populations, as they can lead to negative behaviors, such as anxiety, fatigue, and even cybersickness. Objective: This study aims to evaluate how patients with dementia interact and accept 5 out-of-the-shelf technologies while completing 10 virtual reality tasks. Methods: A total of 12 participants diagnosed with dementia (mean age 75.08 [SD 8.07] years, mean Mini-Mental State Examination score 17.33 [SD 5.79], and mean schooling 5.55 [SD 3.30]) at a health care center in Portugal were invited to participate in this study. A within-subject experimental design was used to allow all participants to interact with all technologies, such as HTC VIVE, head-mounted display (HMD), tablet, mouse, augmented reality (AR), leap motion (LM), and a combination of HMD with LM. Participants’ performance was quantified through behavioral and verbal responses, which were captured through video recordings and written notes. Results: The findings of this study revealed that the user experience using technology was dependent on the patient profile; the patients had a better user experience when they use technologies with direct interaction configuration as opposed to indirect interaction configuration in terms of assistance required (P=.01) and comprehension (P=.01); the participants did not trigger any emotional responses when using any of the technologies; the participants’performance was task-dependent; the most cost-effective technology was the mouse, whereas the least cost-effective was AR; and all the technologies, except for one (HMD with LM), were not exposed to external hazards. Conclusions: Most participants were able to perform tasks using out-of-the-shelf technologies. However, there is no perfect technology, as they are not explicitly designed to address the needs and skills of people with dementia. Here, we propose a set of guidelines that aim to help health professionals and engineers maximize user experience when using such technologies for the population with dementia.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio