Motor learning through virtual reality in elderly - a systematic review

Abstract

INTRODUCTION:Decline in physical function is a common feature of older age and has important outcomes in terms of physical health as it relates to quality of life. Our capacity for motor learning allows us to flexibly adapt movements to an ever-changing environment. The term Virtual Reality refers to a wide variety of methods used to simulate an alternative or virtual world. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the results shown in previous studies on motor learning with Virtual Reality use in elderly participants. METHOD: To select the articles, three steps were followed. A systematic literature review was performed without time limitation. The research was carried out using PubMed, BVS and Web of science; considering the keywords, we included articles that showed the following three terms: elderly, virtual reality and motor learning. RESULTS: The initial search yielded 49 articles. After duplicates were removed, two of the authors independently evaluated the title and abstract of each article against the study inclusion criteria. From these, 45 articles were excluded based on title and abstract. Finally, four articles met the inclusion criteria. CONCLUSION: Although few studies were conducted on motor learning in elderly people through virtual reality and, even fewer were of good quality, it was shown that elderly people, with or without a specific disease, can benefit from interventions based on virtual reality to improve motor learning skills.

Exergames for motor rehabilitation in older adults: an umbrella review

“…Increase in different walking parameters were also found [25,27]. Regarding older adults with specific pathologies, improvements were reported in gait not only when data on exergame intervention was reported, but also when the effect of exergames was compared with traditional exercise, or when intervention included exergames in conjunction with traditional exercise [24,26,44]. Increases were found in walking speed and walking ability when exergames were compared with an alternative condition in older adults [32].…”

“…Balance. Regarding exergame-only interventions in older adults, without pathologies, improvements were reported on static and dynamic balance, standing ability and postural sway [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]. For older adults with pathologies in which one of the symptoms was impaired balance, the quality of evidence indicating improvements in balance was weak to moderate [14,31,32,34,35].…”

“…A review found weak evidence for improvements in walking performance [31]. In comparison with alternative therapies the exergames produced significant improvements in stepping executions in older adults without specific pathologies when compared to inactive control conditions [41] and small or similar effects when comparing to traditional exercise [26,42]. Increase in different walking parameters were also found [25,27].…”

Superimposing 3D Virtual Self + Expert Modeling for Motor Learning: Application to the Throw in American Football

“…Regarding applications, VR has been widely used for motor learning, and more specifically for rehabilitation (Yanovich and Ronen, 2015;Ribeiro-Papa et al, 2016). However, few studies combined self and expert modeling.…”

Functional performance comparison between real and virtual tasks in older adults

“…Although this technology has been used frequently with older adults, the evidence of VR effectiveness in this population is scarce in the literature. [ 10 , 11 ] Few studies focus on older adults as the subject of evaluation, [ 12 , 13 ] but the majority are associated with physical and cognitive changes with older adults used as a control group in studies conducted with individuals with neurological diseases, such as in post-stroke, [ 14 ] Parkinson disease, [ 15 ] and multiple sclerosis. [ 16 ]…”