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A Virtual Reality-Based Physical and Cognitive Training System Aimed at Preventing Symptoms of Dementia

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Wireless Mobile Communication and Healthcare (MobiHealth 2017)

Abstract

This work presents a physical and cognitive training program, based on virtual reality technologies, designed with the aim of preventing the occurrence of symptoms of dementia in elderly with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). The system foresees a physical task to be performed on a cycle-ergometer and two virtual environments for cognitive stimulation. In this paper, results of different validation phases conducted on both healthy and MCI subjects are described. The presented validation path allowed to implement, in parallel, the two current versions of the setup: the former, optimized to assess the efficacy of the intervention in a randomized clinical trial, which will take place in the next future, and the latter, more experimental, which foresees the employment of immersive environments to increase subjects’ engagement and motivation.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been partly funded by MIUR under the “Progetto di interesse Invecchiamento CNR: Goji”. The authors wish to acknowledge their gratitude and appreciation to the project partners for their contribution during the development of this research.

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Correspondence to Sara Arlati .

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© 2018 ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

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Arlati, S. et al. (2018). A Virtual Reality-Based Physical and Cognitive Training System Aimed at Preventing Symptoms of Dementia. In: Perego, P., Rahmani, A., TaheriNejad, N. (eds) Wireless Mobile Communication and Healthcare. MobiHealth 2017. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 247. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98551-0_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98551-0_14

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-98550-3

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