Serious games for screening pre-dementia conditions: from virtuality to reality? A pilot project

Funct Neurol. 2014 Jul-Sep;29(3):153-8.

Abstract

Conventional cognitive assessment is based on a pencil-and-paper neuropsychological evaluation, which is time consuming, expensive and requires the involvement of several professionals. Information and communication technology could be exploited to allow the development of tools that are easy to use, reduce the amount of data processing, and provide controllable test conditions. Serious games (SGs) have the potential to be new and effective tools in the management and treatment of cognitive impairments Serious games for screening pre-dementia conditions: from virtuality to reality? A pilot project in the elderly. Moreover, by adopting SGs in 3D virtual reality settings, cognitive functions might be evaluated using tasks that simulate daily activities, increasing the "ecological validity" of the assessment. In this commentary we report our experience in the creation of the Smart Aging platform, a 3D SGand virtual environment-based platform for the early identification and characterization of mild cognitive impairment.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aging / psychology
  • Cognitive Dysfunction / diagnosis*
  • Humans
  • Imaging, Three-Dimensional
  • Neuropsychological Tests*
  • Pilot Projects
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • User-Computer Interface*
  • Video Games*