Application of Virtual Travel for Alzheimer’s Disease

Hamdi Ben Abdessalem, Alexie Byrns, Marc Cuesta, Valeria Manera, Philippe Robert, Marie-Andrée Bruneau, Sylvie Belleville, Claude Frasson

2020

Abstract

Negative emotions such as anxiety, frustration, or apathy can have an impact on the brain capability in terms of memory and cognitive functions. This is particularly visible in Alzheimer’s disease where the participants can have a deterioration of their brain connections which are often the cause of the disorders detected in Alzheimer's participants. It seems important to reduce these symptoms to allow better access to memory and cognitive abilities. Immersion in Virtual Reality is a means of providing the participant with a sense of presence in an environment that isolates them from external factors that can induce negative emotions. The virtual travel is a method that can mobilize the attention of the subject and revive their interest and curiosity. We present here, an experiment in which a participant is immersed in a virtual train using a virtual headset and EEG device to measure the brain signals. To measure the impact of this train on the memory and cognitive functions, some cognitive tasks have been included before and after the travel. Experiments have been done on participants with mild cognitive disorder. Preliminary results show an increase of memory functions and in certain cases of cognitive functions, while negative emotions are reduced.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Ben Abdessalem H., Byrns A., Cuesta M., Manera V., Robert P., Bruneau M., Belleville S. and Frasson C. (2020). Application of Virtual Travel for Alzheimer’s Disease. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Sensor Networks - Volume 1: SENSORNETS, ISBN 978-989-758-403-9, pages 52-60. DOI: 10.5220/0008976700520060

in Bibtex Style

@conference{sensornets20,
author={Hamdi Ben Abdessalem and Alexie Byrns and Marc Cuesta and Valeria Manera and Philippe Robert and Marie-Andrée Bruneau and Sylvie Belleville and Claude Frasson},
title={Application of Virtual Travel for Alzheimer’s Disease},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Sensor Networks - Volume 1: SENSORNETS,},
year={2020},
pages={52-60},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0008976700520060},
isbn={978-989-758-403-9},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Sensor Networks - Volume 1: SENSORNETS,
TI - Application of Virtual Travel for Alzheimer’s Disease
SN - 978-989-758-403-9
AU - Ben Abdessalem H.
AU - Byrns A.
AU - Cuesta M.
AU - Manera V.
AU - Robert P.
AU - Bruneau M.
AU - Belleville S.
AU - Frasson C.
PY - 2020
SP - 52
EP - 60
DO - 10.5220/0008976700520060