http://www.jneuroengrehab.com/content/10/1/59/abstract
Abstract (provisional)
Background
Cognitive dysfunction caused by brain injury often prevents a patient from achieving
a healthy and high quality of life. By now, each cognitive function is assessed precisely
by neuropsychological tests. However, it is also important to provide an overall assessment
of the patients' ability in their everyday life. We have developed a Virtual Shopping
Test (VST) using virtual reality technology. The objective of this study was to clarify
1) the significance of VST by comparing VST with other conventional tests, 2) the
applicability of VST to brain-damaged patients, and 3) the performance of VST in relation
to age differences.
Methods
The participants included 10 patients with brain damage, 10 age-matched healthy subjects
for controls, 10 old healthy subjects, and 10 young healthy subjects. VST and neuropsychological
tests/questionnaires about attention, memory and executive function were conducted
on the patients, while VST and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) were conducted
on the controls and healthy subjects. Within the VST, the participants were asked
to buy four items in the virtual shopping mall quickly in a rational way. The score
for evaluation included the number of items bought correctly, the number of times
to refer to hints, the number of movements between shops, and the total time spent
to complete the shopping.
Results
Some variables on VST correlated with the scores of conventional assessment about
attention and everyday memory. The mean number of times referring to hints and the
mean number of movements were significantly larger for the patients with brain damage,
and the mean total time was significantly longer for the patients than for the controls.
In addition, the mean total time was significantly longer for the old than for the
young.
Conclusions
The results suggest that VST is able to evaluate the ability of attention and everyday
memory in patients with brain damage. The time of VST is increased by age.
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