Cortical Correlates of Spatial Navigation Skills in an Immersive Virtual Reality Environment

IRCCS Eugenio Medea

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Cerebral Palsy (CP)

Treatments: Other: Navigation task with EEG recording; Other: Preliminary assessment

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06710301

1111

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this study is to investigate the neural mechanisms that undergoes spatial navigation skills in children/adolescents aged between 8 and 17 years. These skills play an important role in daily life, as they allow us to orient ourselves in familiar and unfamiliar environments, locate objects, interact with them and memorize their position. Navigation abilities vary widely between individuals, change with age and might be affected by diseases, such as the cerebral palsy (CP). Previous studies have, in fact, demonstrated differences in the learning and adaptation methods of spatial navigation skills in children affected by CP compared to typically developing (TD) peers. Through the use of the electroencephalogram (EEG) we want to shed light on the mechanisms that govern this ability with the aim of:

1. better characterize spatial navigation skills in children/adolescents, both TD and affected by CP;
2. investigate the origin of the differences found between the spatial navigation skills of TD children and those affected by CP, improving knowledge of the pathology and thus allowing, in the future, to identify more adequate rehabilitation interventions.

Enrollment: 70 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 8 to 17 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• typically developing subjects aged between 8 and 17 years;
• subjects with CP aged between 8 and 17 years;

Exclusion criteria

• subjects aged under 8 or over 17 years;
• subjects with epileptic problems;
• subjects with poor head control;
• subjects with visual problems that can not be corrected with prescription lens;

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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70 participants in 1 patient group

Navigation task

Experimental group

Description:

Administration of the navigation task in an immersive virtual reality environment with recording of the EEG signal

Treatment:

Other: Preliminary assessment

Other: Navigation task with EEG recording