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Theoretical Rationale for Design of Tasks in a Virtual Reality-Based Exergame for Rehabilitation Purposes

Virtual reality games are playing a greater role in rehabilitation settings. Previously, commercial games have dominated, but increasingly, bespoke games for specific rehabilitation contexts are emerging. Choice and design of tasks for VR-games are still not always clear, however; some games are des...

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Autores principales: Bovim, Lars Peder Vatshelle, Valved, Lauritz, Bleikli, Bendik, Geitung, Atle Birger, Soleim, Harald, Bogen, Bård
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8593199/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34795575
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2021.734223
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author Bovim, Lars Peder Vatshelle
Valved, Lauritz
Bleikli, Bendik
Geitung, Atle Birger
Soleim, Harald
Bogen, Bård
author_facet Bovim, Lars Peder Vatshelle
Valved, Lauritz
Bleikli, Bendik
Geitung, Atle Birger
Soleim, Harald
Bogen, Bård
author_sort Bovim, Lars Peder Vatshelle
collection PubMed
description Virtual reality games are playing a greater role in rehabilitation settings. Previously, commercial games have dominated, but increasingly, bespoke games for specific rehabilitation contexts are emerging. Choice and design of tasks for VR-games are still not always clear, however; some games are designed to motivate and engage players, not necessarily with the facilitation of specific movements as a goal. Other games are designed specifically for the facilitation of specific movements. A theoretical background for the choice of tasks seems warranted. As an example, we use a game that was designed in our lab: VR Walk. Here, the player walks on a treadmill while wearing a head-mounted display showing a custom-made virtual environment. Tasks include walking on a glass bridge across a drop, obstacle avoidance, narrowing path, walking in virtual footsteps, memory, and selection tasks, and throwing and catching objects. Each task is designed according to research and theory from movement science, exercise science, and cognitive science. In this article, we discuss how for example walking across a glass bridge gives perceptual challenges that may be suitable for certain medical conditions, such as hearing loss, when perceptual abilities are strained to compensate for the hearing loss. In another example, walking in virtual footsteps may be seen as a motor and biomechanical constraint, where the double support phase and base of support can be manipulated, making the task beneficial for falls prevention. In a third example, memory and selection tasks may challenge individuals that have cognitive impairments. We posit that these theoretical considerations may be helpful for the choice of tasks and for the design of virtual reality games.
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spelling pubmed-85931992021-11-17 Theoretical Rationale for Design of Tasks in a Virtual Reality-Based Exergame for Rehabilitation Purposes Bovim, Lars Peder Vatshelle Valved, Lauritz Bleikli, Bendik Geitung, Atle Birger Soleim, Harald Bogen, Bård Front Aging Neurosci Neuroscience Virtual reality games are playing a greater role in rehabilitation settings. Previously, commercial games have dominated, but increasingly, bespoke games for specific rehabilitation contexts are emerging. Choice and design of tasks for VR-games are still not always clear, however; some games are designed to motivate and engage players, not necessarily with the facilitation of specific movements as a goal. Other games are designed specifically for the facilitation of specific movements. A theoretical background for the choice of tasks seems warranted. As an example, we use a game that was designed in our lab: VR Walk. Here, the player walks on a treadmill while wearing a head-mounted display showing a custom-made virtual environment. Tasks include walking on a glass bridge across a drop, obstacle avoidance, narrowing path, walking in virtual footsteps, memory, and selection tasks, and throwing and catching objects. Each task is designed according to research and theory from movement science, exercise science, and cognitive science. In this article, we discuss how for example walking across a glass bridge gives perceptual challenges that may be suitable for certain medical conditions, such as hearing loss, when perceptual abilities are strained to compensate for the hearing loss. In another example, walking in virtual footsteps may be seen as a motor and biomechanical constraint, where the double support phase and base of support can be manipulated, making the task beneficial for falls prevention. In a third example, memory and selection tasks may challenge individuals that have cognitive impairments. We posit that these theoretical considerations may be helpful for the choice of tasks and for the design of virtual reality games. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-11-02 /pmc/articles/PMC8593199/ /pubmed/34795575 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2021.734223 Text en Copyright © 2021 Bovim, Valved, Bleikli, Geitung, Soleim and Bogen. https://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 Neuroscience
Bovim, Lars Peder Vatshelle
Valved, Lauritz
Bleikli, Bendik
Geitung, Atle Birger
Soleim, Harald
Bogen, Bård
Theoretical Rationale for Design of Tasks in a Virtual Reality-Based Exergame for Rehabilitation Purposes
title Theoretical Rationale for Design of Tasks in a Virtual Reality-Based Exergame for Rehabilitation Purposes
title_full Theoretical Rationale for Design of Tasks in a Virtual Reality-Based Exergame for Rehabilitation Purposes
title_fullStr Theoretical Rationale for Design of Tasks in a Virtual Reality-Based Exergame for Rehabilitation Purposes
title_full_unstemmed Theoretical Rationale for Design of Tasks in a Virtual Reality-Based Exergame for Rehabilitation Purposes
title_short Theoretical Rationale for Design of Tasks in a Virtual Reality-Based Exergame for Rehabilitation Purposes
title_sort theoretical rationale for design of tasks in a virtual reality-based exergame for rehabilitation purposes
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8593199/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34795575
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2021.734223
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