Assessing the utility of a virtual-reality neuropsychological test battery, ‘CONVIRT’, in detecting alcohol-induced cognitive impairment

Amato, Isabella; Nanev, Aleshia; Piantella, Stefan; Wilson, Kira-Elise; Bicknell, Rowena; Heckenberg, Rachael A.; Horan, Ben; Maruff, Paul; Wright, Bradley J.

doi:10.3758/s13428-020-01485-2

Cited by 6 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 36 publications

(44 reference statements)

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“…VR simulations with embedded neuropsychological assessments can reliably and sensitively measure attention, decision-making, and visual processing speed [ 61 ]. In patients with AUD, addiction-related cues in VR attract more attention to the sight, the smell, and the thoughts about alcohol than neutral cues [ 26 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Virtual reality: a powerful technology to provide novel insight into treatment mechanisms of addiction

et al. 2021

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Due to its high ecological validity, virtual reality (VR) technology has emerged as a powerful tool for mental health research. Despite the wide use of VR simulations in research on mental illnesses, the study of addictive processes through the use of VR environments is still at its dawn. In a systematic literature search, we identified 38 reports of research projects using highly immersive head-mounted displays, goggles, or CAVE technologies to provide insight into treatment mechanisms of addictive behaviors. So far, VR research has mainly addressed the roles of craving, psychophysiology, affective states, cognition, and brain activity in addiction. The computer-generated VR environments offer very realistic, dynamic, interactive, and complex real-life simulations requesting active participation. They create a high sense of immersion in users by combining stereoscopic three-dimensional visual, auditory, olfactory, and tactile perceptions, tracking systems responding to user movements, and social interactions. VR is an emerging tool to study how proximal multi-sensorial cues, contextual environmental cues, as well as their interaction (complex cues) modulate addictive behaviors. VR allows for experimental designs under highly standardized, strictly controlled, predictable, and repeatable conditions. Moreover, VR simulations can be personalized. They are currently refined for psychotherapeutic interventions. Embodiment, eye-tracking, and neurobiological factors represent novel future directions. The progress of VR applications has bred auspicious ways to advance the understanding of treatment mechanisms underlying addictions, which researchers have only recently begun to exploit. VR methods promise to yield significant achievements to the addiction field. These are necessary to develop more efficacious and efficient preventive and therapeutic strategies.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This allows for real-time event-triggered data analysis. An example of an embedded VR tool is the CONVIRT test battery, which allows to assess the neuropsychological functions of attention, decision-making, and visual processing speed within the VR simulation [ 61 ]. This tool also enables to measure saccadic eye movements.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Virtual reality: a powerful technology to provide novel insight into treatment mechanisms of addiction

et al. 2021

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“…In this study, we used a virtual-reality cognitive test, 'CONVIRT', which uses eye-tracking technology to assess saccadic speed, and a thumb press to measure SRT and CRT (Horan et al, 2020) to assess visual attention. CONVIRT has been shown to induce autonomic arousal and has been validated with university students (Amato et al, 2020;Horan et al, 2020), who are known to report high levels of chronic academic stress (Kuhnell et al, 2020;Wege et al, 2017). We assessed the relationship between academic stress with tasks that predominantly measure top-down (SRT, CRT) and bottom-up (saccadic reaction time) attention, after controlling for age, overcommitment, state anxiety, fatigue, and the LF/ HF measure of sympathovagal balance.…”

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The CONVIRT battery is a computerised test battery that features a virtual reality (VR) test environment with embedded eye-tracking capabilities (Amato et al, 2020;Horan et al, 2020). It contains three tests of cognitive performance, measuring bottom-up attention (the saccadic reaction time test; SAC-VR), top-down attention via SRT (the detection test; DET-VR), and CRT (the identification test; IDN-VR).…”

Section: The Convirt Batterymentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender moderates the association between chronic academic stress with top-down and bottom-up attention

Wright

Wilson

Kingsley

et al. 2022

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Research on the relationship between chronic stress and cognition is limited by a lack of concurrent measurement of state-anxiety, physiological arousal, and gender. For the first time, we assessed the impact of these factors on top-down/conscious (simple and choice reaction time) and bottom-up/reflexive (saccadic reaction time) measures of attention using CONVIRT virtual-reality cognitive tests. Participants (N = 163) completed measures of academic stress (effort-reward imbalance; ERI) and state-anxiety while heart-rate variability was recorded continuously throughout the experiment. Gender moderated the association between academic stress with the top-down measures (b = -0.002, t = -2.023, p = .045; b = -0.063, t = -3.080, p = .002) and higher academic stress was associated with poorer/slower reaction times only for male participants. For bottom-up attention, heart rate variability moderated the relationship between academic stress and saccadic reaction time (b = 0.092, t = 1.991, p = .048), and only female participants who were more stressed (i.e., ERI ≥ 1) and displayed stronger sympathetic dominance had slower reaction times. Our findings align with emerging evidence that chronic stress is related to hyperarousal in women and cognitive decrements in men. Our findings suggest that higher ERI and sympathetic dominance during cognitive testing was associated with poorer bottom-up attention in women, whereas for men, academic stress was related with poorer top-down attention irrespective of sympathovagal balance.

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“…Because VR has many advantages over traditional NPTs, investigators are paying more and more attention to the application of VR for cognitive testing and making neuropsychological decisions. Amato et al (2020) used the NPT battery "CONVIRT, " fitted with VR for the evaluation of cognitive dysfunction caused by alcohol, which showed high sensitivity and test-retest reliability.…”

Section: Modern Npts Based On the Internet And Artificial Intelligencementioning

confidence: 99%

Neuropsychological Tests in Post-operative Cognitive Dysfunction: Methods and Applications

et al. 2021

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Post-operative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is a neurological complication that relatively frequently occurs in older people after anesthesia/surgery, with varying durations and significant differences in the severity of cognitive impairment. POCD is mainly characterized by memory loss mostly without consciousness disorders, accompanied by abnormal emotions, behaviors, and language, mostly without consciousness disorder. The clinical performance of POCD lacks specificity but can reflect the severity of cognitive impairment in patients. The diagnosis of POCD cannot be separated from the evaluation of perioperative cognitive function of patients, and the more popular and accepted method is neuropsychological tests (NPTs).

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Assessing the utility of a virtual-reality neuropsychological test battery, ‘CONVIRT’, in detecting alcohol-induced cognitive impairment

Cited by 6 publications

References 36 publications

Virtual reality: a powerful technology to provide novel insight into treatment mechanisms of addiction

Virtual reality: a powerful technology to provide novel insight into treatment mechanisms of addiction

Gender moderates the association between chronic academic stress with top-down and bottom-up attention

Neuropsychological Tests in Post-operative Cognitive Dysfunction: Methods and Applications

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