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The Role of Virtual Reality in Screening, Diagnosing, and Rehabilitating Spatial Memory Deficits

Impairment of spatial memory, including an inability to recall previous locations and navigate the world, is often one of the first signs of functional disability on the road to cognitive impairment. While there are many screening and diagnostic tools which attempt to measure spatial memory ability,...

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Autores principales: Jonson, Miles, Avramescu, Sinziana, Chen, Derek, Alam, Fahad
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7893135/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33613216
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2021.628818
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author Jonson, Miles
Avramescu, Sinziana
Chen, Derek
Alam, Fahad
author_facet Jonson, Miles
Avramescu, Sinziana
Chen, Derek
Alam, Fahad
author_sort Jonson, Miles
collection PubMed
description Impairment of spatial memory, including an inability to recall previous locations and navigate the world, is often one of the first signs of functional disability on the road to cognitive impairment. While there are many screening and diagnostic tools which attempt to measure spatial memory ability, they are often not representative of real-life situations and can therefore lack applicability. One potential solution to this problem involves the use of virtual reality (VR), which immerses individuals in a virtually-simulated environment, allowing for scenarios more representative of real-life without any of the associated risks. Here, we review the evidence surrounding the use of VR for the screening and diagnosis of spatial memory impairments, including potential limitations and how it compares to standard neuropsychological tests. We will also discuss the evidence regarding the potential use of VR in the rehabilitation of spatial memory deficits, which has not been well studied, but which could be game-changing if proven successful.
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spelling pubmed-78931352021-02-20 The Role of Virtual Reality in Screening, Diagnosing, and Rehabilitating Spatial Memory Deficits Jonson, Miles Avramescu, Sinziana Chen, Derek Alam, Fahad Front Hum Neurosci Human Neuroscience Impairment of spatial memory, including an inability to recall previous locations and navigate the world, is often one of the first signs of functional disability on the road to cognitive impairment. While there are many screening and diagnostic tools which attempt to measure spatial memory ability, they are often not representative of real-life situations and can therefore lack applicability. One potential solution to this problem involves the use of virtual reality (VR), which immerses individuals in a virtually-simulated environment, allowing for scenarios more representative of real-life without any of the associated risks. Here, we review the evidence surrounding the use of VR for the screening and diagnosis of spatial memory impairments, including potential limitations and how it compares to standard neuropsychological tests. We will also discuss the evidence regarding the potential use of VR in the rehabilitation of spatial memory deficits, which has not been well studied, but which could be game-changing if proven successful. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-02-05 /pmc/articles/PMC7893135/ /pubmed/33613216 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2021.628818 Text en Copyright © 2021 Jonson, Avramescu, Chen and Alam. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Human Neuroscience
Jonson, Miles
Avramescu, Sinziana
Chen, Derek
Alam, Fahad
The Role of Virtual Reality in Screening, Diagnosing, and Rehabilitating Spatial Memory Deficits
title The Role of Virtual Reality in Screening, Diagnosing, and Rehabilitating Spatial Memory Deficits
title_full The Role of Virtual Reality in Screening, Diagnosing, and Rehabilitating Spatial Memory Deficits
title_fullStr The Role of Virtual Reality in Screening, Diagnosing, and Rehabilitating Spatial Memory Deficits
title_full_unstemmed The Role of Virtual Reality in Screening, Diagnosing, and Rehabilitating Spatial Memory Deficits
title_short The Role of Virtual Reality in Screening, Diagnosing, and Rehabilitating Spatial Memory Deficits
title_sort role of virtual reality in screening, diagnosing, and rehabilitating spatial memory deficits
topic Human Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7893135/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33613216
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2021.628818
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