Effect of Spatial Disorientation in a Virtual Environment on Gait and Vital Features in Patients with Dementia: Pilot Single-Blind Randomized Control Trial

Abstract

Background Orientation deficits are among the most devastating consequences of early dementia. Digital navigation devices could overcome these deficits if adaptable to the user’s needs (ie, provide situation-aware, proactive navigation assistance). To fulfill this task, systems need to automatically detect spatial disorientation from sensors in real time. Ideally, this would require field studies consisting of real-world navigation. However, such field studies can be challenging and are not guaranteed to cover sufficient instances of disorientation due to the large variability of real-world settings and a lack of control over the environment. Objective Extending a foregoing field study, we aim to evaluate the feasibility of using a sophisticated virtual reality (VR) setup, which allows a more controlled observation of disorientation states and accompanying behavioral and physiological parameters in cognitively healthy older people and people with dementia. Methods In this feasibility study, we described the experimental design and pilot outcomes of an ongoing study aimed at investigating the effect of disorientation on gait and selected physiological features in a virtual laboratory. We transferred a real-world navigation task to a treadmill-based virtual system for gait analysis. Disorientation was induced by deliberately manipulating landmarks in the VR projection. Associated responses in motion behavior and physiological parameters were recorded by sensors. Primary outcomes were variations in motion and physiological parameters, frequency of disorientation, and questionnaire-derived usability estimates (immersion and perceived control of the gait system) for our population of interest. At this time, the included participants were 9 cognitively healthy older participants [5/9 women, 4/9 men; mean age 70 years, SD 4.40; Mini–Mental State Examination (MMSE) mean 29, SD 0.70) and 4 participants with dementia (2/4 women, 2/4 men; mean age 78 years, SD 2.30 years; MMSE mean 20.50, SD 7.54). Recruitment is ongoing, with the aim of including 30 cognitively healthy older participants and 20 participants with dementia. Results All 13 participants completed the experiment. Patients’ route was adapted by shortening it relative to the original route. Average instances of disorientation were 21.40, 36.50, and 37.50 for the cognitively healthy older control, cognitively healthy older experimental participants, and participants with dementia, respectively. Questionnaire outcomes indicated that participants experienced adequate usability and immersion; 4.30 for presence, 3.73 for involvement, and 3.85 for realism of 7 possible points, indicating a good overall ability to cope with the experiment. Variations were also observed in motion and physiological parameters during instances of disorientation. Conclusions This study presents the first feasibility outcomes of a study investigating the viability of using a sophisticated VR setup, based on an earlier real-world navigation study, to study spatial disorientation among cognitively healthy older people and people with dementia. Preliminary outcomes give confidence to the notion that our setup can be used to assess motion and physiological markers of disorientation, even in people with cognitive decline. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04134806

Prediction of Disorientation by Accelerometric and Gait Features in Young and Older Adults Navigating in a Virtually Enriched Environment

“…The experimental set-up has been described before ( Amaefule et al, 2020 ). In brief, the participants were guided along a path in the virtual environment.…”

“…Here, we transferred our previous approach to the better-controlled environment within the Gait Real-Time Analysis Interactive Lab (GRAIL) system. The GRAIL consists of a physical treadmill combined with a large hemisphere screen ( Amaefule et al, 2020 ). In our experiment, the GRAIL screen featured a virtual representation of the city center of Rostock, resembling the environment of the previous real-world experiment ( Schaat et al, 2019 ).…”

“…Participants were asked to navigate through this environment while walking on the treadmill. In a previous pilot study, we showed that this set-up was feasible for use with older participants, including people with cognitive decline, and allowed us to record a comprehensive set of predictive features, including accelerometry, gait features, and physiological signals ( Amaefule et al, 2020 ). In addition, we were able to induce disorientation episodes by removing landmarks from the virtual environment to provide more instances for model training.…”

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