| Sumario: | We developed a Virtual Shopping Test (VST) for realistic cognitive assessment using virtual reality technology. The objectives of this study were to investigate: (i) the differences in task performance, brain activation, and subjective assessments in relation to the task difficulty level; and (ii) the significance of each task by comparing performance data with conventional cognitive assessments and subjective assessments. Subjects were asked to buy two specific items in Task 1, four items in Task 2, and six items in Task 3 at a virtual mall. The tasks and questionnaires were conducted by convalescent brain-damaged patients and healthy adults. Hemodynamic changes in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) during activation due to the tasks were examined using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. The mean total time was longer for the patients than for the healthy subjects in all tasks; PFC responses in the patients were greater in Task 2 than in Task 1; the patients subjectively evaluated these tasks as more difficult than healthy adults. Some VST variables correlated with the score of conventional assessment of basic executive functions in Task 1, with that of everyday memory in Task 2, and with that of applied attention in Task 3. In conclusion, the results suggest that the difficulty of the 4-item shopping task may have been sufficient to cause brain activation in the brain-damaged patients. Each task shows different neuropsychological tendency and we need further examination in various types of patients for clinical phase.
|
|---|