One of the earliest symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a loss of spatial navigation. In this work, we improved an existing screening test for AD that analyzed a patient’s spatial navigation ability. The existing screening test was made more immersive, and therefore more reliable, by integrating support for a leading-edge consumer-targeted Head-Mounted Display (HMD). This integration brought some technical and usability challenges, that were addressed. Furthermore, we investigated the rehabilitative potential of Virtual Reality Navigational (VRN) activities in two case studies: an Early Stage AD (ESA) participant and a Late Stage AD (LSA) participant. We found that the ESA participant was able to significantly improve his navigation skills, and we observed some qualitative improvements in memory and navigation in his personal life. The LSA participant did not improve noticeably at the VRN tasks, but his mood improved after participating in the treatment sessions. These case studies suggested that VRN treatment may be beneficial for people with AD, especially at the onset stage. / February 2017
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:MANITOBA/oai:mspace.lib.umanitoba.ca:1993/31979 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | White, Paul |
| Contributors | Moussavi, Zahra (Biomedical Engineering), Ho, Carl (Electrical and Computer Engineering) McLeod, Bob (Electrical and Computer Engineering) Unger, Bertram (Mechanical Engineering) |
| Publisher | Libertas |
| Source Sets | University of Manitoba Canada |
| Detected Language | English |
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