Self-Adaptive Immersive Virtual Reality Serious Game to Enhance Motor Skill Learning and Attention in Older Adults (SAVinGs)

Laval University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Aging; Aging Well; Older Adults

Treatments: Device: Self-adaptive serious game; Device: Non-adaptive serious game

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06141642

#2020-1909

Details and patient eligibility

About

While scientific evidence emphasizes the detrimental effect of sedentary behavior on health, the literature suggests that, on average, older adults spend 75% of their days in a sedentary manner, and often isolated (Petrusevski 2020). This lack of physical activity and social interaction not only leads to an increase in functional limitations and the risk of worsening an existing chronic disease but also elevates the risk of mortality. Furthermore, older adults face progressive functional decline, both in motor and cognitive aspects, as a result of aging, contributing to inactivity and sedentary behavior (Botö 2021).

The literature suggests that new technologies such as immersive virtual reality (iVR) and serious games serve as effective means to promote active leisure, thereby breaking isolation and reducing sedentary behavior. The development of these new technologies is also promising for objectively and quantitatively measuring motor and cognitive activity (e.g., kinematics, reaction time).

Serious games are defined as games whose primary objective is more focused on learning than entertainment. For instance, they allow the integration of physical and cognitive activity programs into a playful activity, conducive to long-term adherence. Their effectiveness is starting to be studied in hospitalized older adults (Cuevas-Lara 2021), especially as they also help combat age-related functional decline. Indeed, they provide the opportunity to promote and measure activity through enjoyable and self-administered exercises.

However, despite the growing interest in serious games, the impact of self-adaptive serious games, compared to traditional (non-adaptive) serious games, on motor skill learning and attention function in older adults remains unclear. This gap in knowledge necessitates a rigorous investigation. Therefore, this randomized controlled trial seeks to address this gap and achieve the following objectives:

1. Compare the effect of a self-adaptive serious game to a non-adaptive serious game on motor skill learning and attention in older adults.
2. Enhance the understanding of how motor skill learning in immersive virtual reality translates to older adults' activities of daily living.

Enrollment: 33 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 65 to 95 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Normal-to-corrected vision
• Score > 24 in the Montreal Cognitive Assessment
• Age > or = 65 years old

Exclusion criteria

• Severe comprehension issues
• History of seizures
• Prior experience with serious games in immersive virtual reality

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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33 participants in 2 patient groups

Self-adaptive serious game

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in this arm will follow, during three consecutive days, a serious game (REAsmashVR) intervention whose difficulty is automatically and progressively adapted to their motor and cognitive performance. REAsmashVR involves finding a target as fast as possible. The virtual target (a mole wearing a red miner's helmet) is presented with distractors (moles wearing different helmets). Participants use a controller to hit the target mole with a virtual hammer. In this arm, the REAsmashVR version uses a regulator to continuously moderate the location and timing of appearance of the target mole, the number and type of distractors and the working area. This regulator enables users to score 75% successful performance (driving motivation to play / learn).

Treatment:

Device: Self-adaptive serious game

Non-adaptive serious game

Sham Comparator group

Description:

Participants in this arm will follow, during three consecutive days, a serious game (REAsmashVR) intervention whose difficulty is not automatically adapted to their motor and cognitive performance. In this arm, the REAsmashVR version does not use a regulator to continuously adapt exercise difficulty according to user performance. Instead, the game randomly moderates the location of the target mole, the working area and the type of distractors. The appearance timing remains constant at 7 seconds, while the number of distractors gradually increases over time to simulate an adaptive game environment, ensuring participants are kept unaware of the intervention.

Treatment:

Device: Non-adaptive serious game