Faculty of Psychology, eCampus University, Novedrate, Italy.
Applied Technology for Neuropsychology Lab, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan, Italy.
PLoS One. 2024 Feb 1;19(2):e0294199. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294199. eCollection 2024.
Completing cognitive and motor tasks simultaneously requires a high level of cognitive control in terms of executive processes and attentional abilities. Most of the daily activities require a dual-task performance. While walking, for example, it may be necessary to adapt gait to obstacles of the environment or simply participate in a conversation; all these activities involve more than one ability at the same time. This parallel performance may be critical in the cognitive or motor load, especially for patients with neurological diseases such as Parkinsonian Syndromes. Patients are often characterized by a crucial impairment in performing both tasks concurrently, showing a decrease in attention skills and executive functions, thus leading to increased negative outcomes. In this scenario, the accurate assessment of the components involved in dual-task performance is crucial, and providing an early specific training program appears to be essential. The objective of this protocol is to assess cognitive and motor components involved in dual-task performance and create a training program based on ecological activities focusing on executive and motor functions. Thus, we will employ Virtual Reality to provide semi-immersive, multisensory, ecological, standardized, and realistic experiences for rehabilitative purposes in patients with Parkinsonian Syndromes, considering its high prevalence in aging and the incidence of motor and cognitive dysfunctions in this population. Moreover, we propose to integrate the great amount of different data provided by dual-task and Virtual Reality system, using machine learning techniques. These integrations may increase the treatment's reliability in terms of better prognostic indexes and individualized training.
同时完成认知和运动任务需要在执行过程和注意力能力方面具有较高的认知控制水平。大多数日常活动都需要进行双重任务表现。例如,在行走时,可能需要根据环境障碍物来调整步态,或者只是参与对话;所有这些活动都同时涉及多种能力。这种并行表现对于认知或运动负荷可能至关重要,特别是对于患有帕金森综合征等神经疾病的患者。这些患者在同时执行两项任务时经常表现出严重的障碍,表现为注意力技能和执行功能下降,从而导致负面后果增加。在这种情况下,准确评估双重任务表现中涉及的各个组成部分至关重要,并且提供早期的特定训练计划似乎是必不可少的。本方案的目的是评估双重任务表现中涉及的认知和运动成分,并根据侧重于执行和运动功能的生态活动创建训练计划。因此,我们将使用虚拟现实为帕金森综合征患者提供半沉浸式、多感官、生态、标准化和现实的康复体验,因为其在老龄化人群中的高患病率以及该人群中运动和认知功能障碍的发生率。此外,我们建议将双重任务和虚拟现实系统提供的大量不同数据进行整合,使用机器学习技术。这些整合可能会提高治疗的可靠性,提供更好的预后指标和个性化训练。