Feasibility of using virtual reality for remediation of memory deficit in schizophrenia patients

Cognitive deficit presents a significant problem affecting the life of schizophrenia patients. Despite the variability of the deficit, which influences almost all cognitive domains, the most profound seems to be deficit in memory and executive functioning with direct impact on daily functioning of patients with schizophrenia. As the pharmacologic interventions do not seem to bring satisfying results, the cognitive remediation seems to bet the most effective way of intervention of the deficit. Efficacy of cognitive remediation approach was repeatedly confirmed on the level of structural and functional changes of the brain. Nevertheless, often discussed are the issues of ecological validity of cognitive remediation and its controversial ability of transfer of acquired abilities and skills into the real life. In this work, we present development of a new method potentially applicable in the remediation of deficit of declarative memory in schizophrenia patients designed in ecologically valid environment of virtual supermarket. In the first two pilot studies, we tested the functionality of the task in the healthy volunteers and we compared their performance in the virtual task with the results in standard psychological memory tests. After considering the findings from the pilot studies, we verified the...Kognitivní deficit představuje závažný problém ovlivňující životy mnoha pacientů se schizofrenií. Přes značnou variabilitu deficitu, který postihuje téměř všechny kognitivní domény, vystupuje do popředí zejména deficit paměti a exekutivních funkcí, který má přímý dopad na úspěšnost každodenního fungování pacientů. Jelikož farmakologická intervence nepřináší v oblasti kognitivního deficitu uspokojivé výsledky, bývá za efektivní způsob intervence považována kognitivní remediace. Efektivita kognitivně remediačních přístupů byla opakovaně potvrzena rovněž na úrovni strukturálních a funkčních změn mozku. Často diskutovaným problémem, který je spjat s kognitivní remediací, je ale nízká ekologická validita a sporná přenositelnost získaných schopností a dovedností do reálného života. V této práci představujeme vývoj nové úlohy potenciálně využitelné k remediaci deficitu verbální paměti u pacientů se schizofrenií navržené v ekologicky validním prostředí virtuálního supermarketu. V prvních dvou pilotních studiích jsme otestovali funkčnost úlohy u zdravých dobrovolníků a porovnali výkon v úloze s výsledky ve standardních psychologických testech paměti. Po zapracování získaných poznatků z pilotního výzkumu, jsme ověřili možnost využití úlohy u pacientů schizofrenního okruhu onemocnění. Výkon v experimentální...Katedra psychologieDepartment of PsychologyFilozofická fakultaFaculty of Art

Remediace kognitivního deficitu u neuropsychiatrických poruch pomocí úloh ve virtuální realitě

Teoretická východiska: Tato práce zkoumá obecnou uplatnitelnost virtuální reality (VR) pro kognitivní remediaci u neuropsychiatrických pacientů. Hlavním cílem práce bylo vytvořit VR úlohy vhodné pro tento účel, posoudit vlastnosti různých VR platforem a stanovit validitu a efektivitu vyvinutého programu u cílové populace. Metoda: Ve studii 1 se zdraví senioři (n = 36) a mladí dospělí (n = 25) zúčastnili nově vyvinuté úlohy Virtual Supermarket Shopping Task (VSST) v imerzivní VR (IVR) nebo neimerzivní VR (non-IVR) za účelem zkoumání jejich charakteristik. Studie 2 hodnotila validitu (n = 21) a spolehlivost (n = 8) Much, nové VR úlohy zaměřené na psychomotorickou rychlost. Ve studii 3 byl VSST administrován 20 pacientům se schizofrenií (SZ) a 20 zdravým kontrolám (HC), aby se vyhodnotila jeho validita. Ve studii 4 se 28 pacientů se schizofrenií nebo depresí zúčastnilo VE programu a standardního programu tužka-papír, aby byla ověřena uplatnitelnost a efektivita obou metod. Výsledky: Ve studii 1 si senioři vedli výrazně hůře v IVR než v non-IVR, kognitivní výkon u mladých dospělých byla stabilní napříč platformami, mladí dospělí preferovali IVR před non-IVR. Studie 2 zjistila významnou korelaci mezi Mouchami a standardními kognitivními testy a test- retest reliabilita přesahovala hodnotu 0,7. Ve studii...Theoretical background: This dissertation investigates the feasibility of virtual reality (VR) for cognitive remediation in neuropsychiatric patients. The main goal was to create VR tasks appropriate for this purpose, assess the characteristics of the applied VR media, and investigate the validity and efficacy of the developed program in the target population. Method: In Study 1, healthy seniors (n = 36) and young adults (n = 25) participated in a newly developed Virtual Supermarket Shopping Task (VSST) in immersive VR (IVR) or non-immersive VR (non-IVR) to investigate their characteristics. Study 2 assessed validity (n = 21) and reliability (n = 8) of a novel VR task focused on psychomotor speed called Flies. In Study 3, VSST was administered to 20 patients with schizophrenia (SZ) and 20 healthy controls (HC) to investigate its validity. Finally, in Study 4, 28 patients with schizophrenia or depression participated in the proposed VE program and standard paper-pencil remediation approach to investigate feasibility and efficacy. Results: In Study 1, the seniors performed significantly worse in IVR than in non-IVR, cognitive performance in young adults was stable across different VR media, the young adults preferred IVR over non-IVR. Study 2 found a significant correlation between the Flies and...Department of Physiology 3FM CUÚstav fyziologie 3. LF UK3. lékařská fakultaThird Faculty of Medicin

Cognitive remediation using virtual reality in neuropsychiatric disorders

Theoretical background: This dissertation investigates the feasibility of virtual reality (VR) for cognitive remediation in neuropsychiatric patients. The main goal was to create VR tasks appropriate for this purpose, assess the characteristics of the applied VR media, and investigate the validity and efficacy of the developed program in the target population. Method: In Study 1, healthy seniors (n = 36) and young adults (n = 25) participated in a newly developed Virtual Supermarket Shopping Task (VSST) in immersive VR (IVR) or non-immersive VR (non-IVR) to investigate their characteristics. Study 2 assessed validity (n = 21) and reliability (n = 8) of a novel VR task focused on psychomotor speed called Flies. In Study 3, VSST was administered to 20 patients with schizophrenia (SZ) and 20 healthy controls (HC) to investigate its validity. Finally, in Study 4, 28 patients with schizophrenia or depression participated in the proposed VE program and standard paper-pencil remediation approach to investigate feasibility and efficacy. Results: In Study 1, the seniors performed significantly worse in IVR than in non-IVR, cognitive performance in young adults was stable across different VR media, the young adults preferred IVR over non-IVR. Study 2 found a significant correlation between the Flies and..

The use of computer programms in rehabilitation after head and brain injury

The theoretical part of the theses deals with options of the use of computer technologies in rehabilitation after head and brain injury. The introductory part outlines the topic of neuropsychological rehabilitation, its rudiments and major models. The following part contains a summary of benefits and disadvantages of computer-assisted rehabilitation and a short familiarization with studies considering efficiency of this approach in rehabilitation. Furthermore, this part contains a list of the most often used professional rehabilitation programms and their area of application. The third section follows up the topic of virtual reality and its advantages over simpler softwares. Moreover, there is also a summary of findings considering its efficiency. The last theoretical chapter describes principles and applications of EEG biofeedback therapy. Studies dealing with the efficiency of neurofeedback in rehabilitation after a traumatic brain injury are shortly mentioned at the end of this chapter. The practical part contains a propposed research project which deals with the effectiveness of neurofeedback in rehabilitation of deficits in attention, memory and executive functions of individuals after a traumatic brain injury. This is an experimental randomized controled study

Cognitive Remediation in Virtual Environments for Patients with Schizophrenia and Major Depressive Disorder: A Feasibility Study

Standard approaches to cognitive remediation can suffer from limited skill transferability to patients’ life. Complex virtual environments (VEs) enable us to create ecologically valid remediation scenarios while preserving laboratory conditions. Nevertheless, the feasibility and efficacy of these programs in psychiatric patients are still unknown. Our aim was to compare the feasibility and efficacy of a novel rehabilitation program, designed in complex VEs, with standard paper–pencil treatment in patients with schizophrenia and major depressive disorder. We recruited 35 participants to complete a VE rehabilitation program and standard treatment in a crossover pilot study. Twenty-eight participants completed at least one program, 22 were diagnosed with schizophrenia and 6 with major depressive disorder. Participant’s performance in the representative VE training task significantly improved in terms of maximum achieved difficulty (p ≤ 0.001), speed (p < 0.001) and efficacy (p ≤ 0.001) but not in item performance measure. Neither the standard treatment nor the VE program led to improvement in standardized cognitive measures. Participants perceived both programs as enjoyable and beneficial. The refusal rate was higher in the VE program (8.6%) than in the standard treatment (0%). But in general, the VE program was well-accepted by the psychiatric patients and it required minimal involvement of the clinician due to automatic difficulty level adjustment and performance recording. However, the VE program did not prove to be effective in improving cognitive performance in the standardized measures

Why just experience the future when you can change it : Virtual reality can increase pro-environmental food choices through self-efficacy.

Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) has the potential to play an important role in increasing environmental literacy by providing individuals the opportunity to experience plausible scenarios of climate change directly. However, there is currently little evidence for the role of IVR, and for specific design features, in increasing environmental self-efficacy. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effects of an IVR intervention on pro-environmental intentions, knowledge, and transfer. A total of 90 middle school students were randomly assigned to two IVR intervention conditions: 1) Awareness, in which students experience the impact of their current food choices on future environmental change; 2) Awareness + Efficacy, in which students had the opportunity to change their food choices and experience the positive impact of this on future environmental change. Both interventions resulted in significant increases in intentions, knowledge, and transfer. However, the Awareness + Efficacy condition resulted in further significant increases in intentions and transfer than the Awareness condition. Finally, mediation analysis showed that the effect of the Awareness + Efficacy condition on intentions and transfer was fully mediated by self-efficacy. These results suggest that allowing students not just to experience climate change but also to see the positive impact of changed personal choices can maximize the effectiveness of IVR on intentions and transfer

A randomized trial testing the effectiveness of virtual reality as a tool for pro-environmental dietary change

This study investigates the impact of an efficacy-focused virtual reality (VR) intervention designed according to instructional design principles on eating behavior. In the preregistered intervention study, psychology students were randomly assigned to nine seminar blocks. Employing parallel design, they were allocated to either a VR intervention to experience the environmental impact of food behavior (1) and alter the future by revising food choices (2) or to a passive control condition. The data from 123 participants (78% female, mean age 25.03, SD = 6.4) were analyzed to investigate the effect of the VR intervention on dietary footprint measured from 1 week before to 1 week after the intervention. The VR intervention decreased individual dietary footprints (d = 0.4) significantly more than the control condition. Similarly, the VR condition increased response efficacy and knowledge to a larger extent compared to the control. For knowledge, the effect persisted for 1 week. The VR intervention had no impact on intentions, self-efficacy, or psychological distance. Additional manipulation of normative feedback enhanced self-efficacy; however, manipulation of geographical framing did not influence psychological distance. This research received no financial support from any funding agency and was registered on 15/09/2021 at Open Science Foundation with the number https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/2AXF3