Development of a cognitive function test using virtual reality technology: examination in healthy participants

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Gerontology
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Assessing cognitive function in near-daily-life contexts is crucial for early detection of decline.
• Existing screening tests may not fully capture real-world cognitive performance.
• Virtual reality offers a novel platform for ecologically valid cognitive assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a Virtual Shopping Test (VST) for assessing cognitive function in a Japanese population.
• To investigate the influence of age on VST performance.
• To examine the correlation between VST scores and established cognitive screening tools (MMSE, EMC).

Main Methods:

• Development of a virtual reality shopping mall environment for task execution via touch panel.
• Inclusion of 285 healthy Japanese participants across seven age groups (20-86 years).
• Administration of VST, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and Everyday Memory Checklist (EMC).

Main Results:

• VST performance indices generally decreased with increasing age, with significant differences observed across age groups.
• Most VST indices showed a significant negative correlation with MMSE scores.
• A significant positive correlation was found between VST indices and EMC scores.

Conclusions:

• The Virtual Shopping Test (VST) demonstrates potential utility in evaluating general cognitive decline.
• Age is a significant factor influencing VST performance and must be considered for accurate interpretation.
• VST shows promise as an ecologically valid tool for cognitive assessment, complementing traditional methods.