Novel supports to the assessment of cognitive functions through the combined use of technologies and subjective and objective measurements

Abstract

Cognitive functions include all the processes through which an individual perceives, records, maintains, recovers, manipulates, uses and expresses information that are involved in any everyday activity. The traditional cognitive functioning assessment belongs to the applied neuropsychological science that focuses on the evaluation of the specific cognitive components through the recollection of observable behaviors during specific activities. The main standardized tools can be divided in three main groups: short scales of cognitive tracking testsquestionnaires, general neuropsychological batteries, and specific tests. These tools are well-validated and riable but, in the last decade, several research have shown that some patients can perform these neuropsychological tests well, even when they have significant difficulties in adapting their behaviors to daily life activities. This could depend on the fact that neuropsychological tests are too abstract, decontextualized and do not reflect daily life activities. According to this, more recently, a new approach has substantially increased, potentially providing a higher ecological validity in functional cognitive abilities assessment than standardized approach: the use of advanced technological systems for neuropsychological assessment (ATSNA). ATSNA refer to a set of devices and software applications such as computerized tests, fun and interactive fantasy serious games (SG), and/or simulated virtual (VR) and/or augmented (AR) reality systems that go beyond traditional assessment tests and that supply the possibility to deliver controlled and dynamic stimuli, in ecologically valid, and secure environments. Technologically, ATSNA can be rendered through a non-immersive (2D) screen in which interaction is possible thanks to a keyboard or a mouse or through more immersive head mounted display systems (3D) in which the human eye-gaze and (virtual) hands allow subjects to interact with the synthetic elements. Hence, by developing an ATSNA system that allows subject to become protagonist in an ATS environment, cognitive functions can be assessed as if he/she was evaluated in a real-simulated environment. In fact, although to date several 2D and 3D Contents