Common daily activities in the virtual environment: a preliminary study in parkinsonian patients

Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) create behavioral motor strategies by using external cues to facilitate their movements. Virtual reality (VR) could work as an external stimulus in order to explore the motor plans by means of creation of mental images. We tested 2 women with PD aged 68 and 69 years, and 10 normal control subjects. Patients underwent a neuropsychological assessment to evaluate cognitive abilities involved in the tasks required by the VR session. VR environment reproduces common daily activities situations at home, such as eating or using the bathroom. VR describes the alterations of the motor plans in PD by a point of view different from the clinical one, by testing "pure" mental sequences of the execution of a movement, without the interference of motor disability.