How Virtual Reality Can Improve The Quality Of Life For People With Dementia
Their study was recently published in the Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, and was presented at the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems taking place in Glasgow, May 4-9.
The small study, conducted at St Andrew's Healthcare in Northampton, involved 8 patients (ages 41 to 88) who were living with dementia. (Alzheimer's disease and Huntington's disease).
The study equipped each patient with a VR headset to 'visit' one of five virtual environments (VEs): a cathedral, a forest, a sandy beach, a rocky beach, and a countryside scene. Each patient underwent 16 monitored sessions and response and feedback was recorded among patients and their caregivers.
One important finding from the study was that VR helped patients retrieve old memories by incorporating novel stimuli difficult to access as a result of poor and declining health and inability to reach from their limited and secure environment.
See the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertglatter/2019/05/09/how-virtual-reality-can-improve-the-quality-of-life-for-people-with-dementia/#637c84ae7f1c