Virtual Reality in Virtual Reality in Cognitive RetrainingCognitive Retraining

Virtual Reality in Virtual Reality in Cognitive RetrainingCognitive Retraining

Rosa Maria Esteves Moreira da CostaLuis Alfredo V. de Carvalho

Dóris Ferraz de Aragon

COPPE-Systems EngineeringUniversidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro - Brasil

The success of computer use in the

educational and training areas opens

new perspectives for different

knowledge domains

Health

In the last few years

the health fields

have been enhanced by new

technologies integrated into

medical procedures

Only recently has the potential of computers for the study and rehabilitation

of human cognitive/functional abilities been recognized

Rehabilitation softwareRehabilitation software

Aim to develop human capabilities

and to reduce limitations,

exploring different technical aids

The initial cognitive rehabilitation

tools were specific

to treatment of isolated functions

and explored situations similar to

traditional practices

PerceptionPerception

Virtual Reality-based (VR) software

has been thought to be potentially

more representative of every-day

life situations than paper-and-pencil

treatment procedures or limited software 

The objective of this work is

to describe a virtual environment that

explores therapeutic strategies and can

act, in an integrated way, in different

types of cognitive disorders, offering

significant opportunities to the patients

to face common day-to-day situations.

Virtual Reality: a tendency in the

Cognitive Rehabilitation area

Brain PlasticityBrain Plasticity

The possibility of brain plasticity

from environmental stimuli is

essential for therapeutic strategies

development for many cerebral disorders

Immersion

Interaction Presence

AVIRC: An Integrated Virtual

Environment for Cognitive Rehabilitation

Environment ObjectiveEnvironment Objective

This research led to the design of an

interactive tool to support cognitive

ability recover for persons with

different cerebral disabilities, exploring

learning strategies and offering

opportunities for expressive

experiences with day-to-day situations

Requirements

Design

Prototyping

Validation

AVIRC development process

Cognitive Function

Physical Environment Description

Task Description

Alertness

Attention

A house room with many decorative elements: clock, photos, pictures, calendar, background music

Answer the date, time, turn on/off the radio and the lamp

Game room contains books and games

Solve different puzzles and choose books, guided by some clues

Tasks DescriptionTasks Description

City sight

Supermarket

Ludoteca - Game room

Before create specific products,

it is important to verify the technology

acceptance by patients with different

degree and kinds of disabilities

Experiment Objective

We are interested in observing if the patients

accept the VR technology and respond to

virtual environment tasks in a meaningful way

Experiment was divided in three stagesExperiment was divided in three stages

• Contact with the computer PaintBrush

• Flat screen

• I-Glasses

ContextContextContextContext

Patients with Schizophrenia

Psychiatry Hospital Project

The patientsThe patients

  1o paciente

2o paciente

3o paciente

4o paciente

Sex M M M F

Age 37 years old

41 years old

46 years old

57 years old

Age of the first crisis 29 years old

21 years old

28 years old

27 years old

Results - First Stage

They loved to make draw and told that they want to use the computer in the nextmeeting

High skills inmanipulating the mouse

Results - Second stage

• They liked the experiment and the images;

• They hope to return to browse the city;

• They preferred to accomplish the tasks;

• They did not feel lost;

• They did not stress any difficulty in the use

of the Virtual City

Results - Third Stage

They liked to use the I-Glasses;

They stressed no immersion problem

Psychiatric patients can accept Virtual

Reality Technology and they

feel very motivated to work with computers

We considered that :We considered that :

ConclusionsConclusions

The use of VR technology in cognitive

rehabilitation of schizophrenia merits

further research to determine functional

relationships between the virtual

environments and cognitive gains.