IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng. 2019 Oct;27(10):2229-2236. doi: 10.1109/TNSRE.2019.2938103. Epub 2019 Aug 28.
Virtual reality (VR) is a useful tool to assess and improve spatial navigation, a complex skill and relevant marker for progression of dementia. A fully-immersive VR system that allows the user to physically navigate in the space can provide an ecologically valid environment for early detection and remediation of cognitive and navigational deficits. The aim of this study was to develop a virtual version of the floor maze test (VR-FMT), a navigational test that requires navigating through an unfamiliar two-dimensional floor maze. With the VR-FMT, mazes of desired complexity and walls of preferred height can be built to challenge navigational ability and mask visual clues. Fifty-five healthy adults completed the FMT in three different conditions: real environment (RE), virtual environment with no walls (VE-NW), and virtual environment with walls (VE-W). In addition, they completed two neuropsychological tests, the Trail Making Test and Digit Symbol Substitution Test. Results showed that the time to complete the maze in the VE was significantly higher than in the RE. The introduction of walls increased the number of errors, the completion time, and the length of the path. Only time to exit in the VE-W correlated with results of the cognitive tests. Participants were further subdivided on the basis of their time to exit the maze in the RE, VE-NW, and VE-W (low navigational time - LNT, and high navigational time - HNT). Only when analyzing the time to exit the maze in the VE-W, the LNT group outperformed the HNT group in all cognitive tests.
虚拟现实（VR）是评估和改善空间导航的有用工具，空间导航是一种复杂的技能，也是痴呆症进展的相关标志物。一个完全沉浸式的 VR 系统，允许用户在空间中实际导航，可以为认知和导航缺陷的早期检测和矫正提供一个生态有效的环境。本研究的目的是开发一个虚拟的地板迷宫测试（VR-FMT），这是一种需要在不熟悉的二维地板迷宫中导航的测试。使用 VR-FMT，可以构建所需复杂程度的迷宫和所需高度的墙壁，以挑战导航能力并掩盖视觉线索。55 名健康成年人在三种不同条件下完成了 FMT：真实环境（RE）、无墙壁的虚拟环境（VE-NW）和有墙壁的虚拟环境（VE-W）。此外，他们还完成了两项神经心理学测试，即连线测试和数字符号替代测试。结果表明，在 VE 中完成迷宫的时间明显长于在 RE 中。引入墙壁会增加错误数量、完成时间和路径长度。只有 VE-W 中的出口时间与认知测试结果相关。然后根据他们在 RE、VE-NW 和 VE-W 中离开迷宫的时间将参与者进一步细分（低导航时间 - LNT 和高导航时间 - HNT）。只有在分析 VE-W 中离开迷宫的时间时，LNT 组在所有认知测试中的表现都优于 HNT 组。
