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Pompeu JE1, da Costa RQM2, de Mello DD1, Moretto E1, Rodrigues FZ1, dos Santos MD1, Nitrini R2, Morganti F3, Bruck SMD2
1University of Sao Paulo, Physical Therapy, Speech and Occupational Therapy, São Paulo, Brazil, 2University of Sao Paulo, Neurology, São Paulo, Brazil, 3Università degli Studi di Bergamo, Dipartimento di Scienze Umane e Social, Bergamo, Italy
Background: Spatial orientation is the ability to find our way in familiar or unfamiliar surroundings. It involves two major aspects of spatial cognition: Egocentric orientation, which provides spatial information from the viewpoint of the navigator, and Allocentric orientation, involving the focus on the spatial relationship between landmarks, independent of the navigator´s position. Deficits in spatial orientation are a common manifestation of Alzheimer´s Disease and can be one of its earliest symptoms. However, there is still no gold standard for the assessment of spatial orientation abilities. Following the current progression of spatial orientation assessment and the advantages of immersive virtual interactive tasks, our group has focused on developing two virtual reality tasks using a new proposed system, the Spatial Orientation in an Immersive Virtual Environment Test (SOIVET): SOIVET-Maze task and SOIVET-Route task.
Purpose: To assess the tolerability, sense of presence, and usability of two Immersive Virtual Environment Test developed to evaluate spacial orientation.
Methods: It was a cross-sectional study in which 31 healthy adults recruited from university and the local community performed two experimental immersive virtual reality tasks of spatial orientation: the SOIVET-Maze for the assessment of allocentric to egocentric spatial abilities and the SOIVETRoute for the assessment of spatial memory and landmark recognition. Participants completed questionnaires about sense of presence, cybersickness symptoms, technology use profile and motion sickness history. Usability measures were assessed by spontaneous feedback from participants.
Results: All participants were able to understand the task instructions and how to interact with the system. Both tasks seemed to induce a strong sense of presence, as assessed by
the Witmer and Singer Presence Questionnaires (M=128 and 143 for SOIVET-Maze and SOIVET-Route, respectively). The SOIVET-Route had a small numeric advantage over the SOIVET-Maze tolerability scores assessed by the Cybersickness Questionnaire (M=4.19, SD=5.576 and M=3.52, SD=6.418 for SOIVET-Maze and SOIVET-Route respectively). Also, there were no drop-outs on the SOIVET-Route due to tolerability issues, unlike the SOIVET-Maze, which had two drop-outs. However, this difference was not statistically significant (Z= -.901, p= 0.368, Wilcoxon signed-rank test).
Conclusion(s): The SOIVET-Maze and SOIVET-Route seem to be well-tolerated, engaging and easy-to-use immersive tasks.
Implications: The present study yielded favorable results that encourage further investigation of the proposed tasks in different population and patient profiles.
Keywords: spatial orientation, ecological momentary assessment, immersive virtual reality
Funding acknowledgements: This work is part of a project funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), Grant: 2016/04984-3.
Purpose: To assess the tolerability, sense of presence, and usability of two Immersive Virtual Environment Test developed to evaluate spacial orientation.
Methods: It was a cross-sectional study in which 31 healthy adults recruited from university and the local community performed two experimental immersive virtual reality tasks of spatial orientation: the SOIVET-Maze for the assessment of allocentric to egocentric spatial abilities and the SOIVETRoute for the assessment of spatial memory and landmark recognition. Participants completed questionnaires about sense of presence, cybersickness symptoms, technology use profile and motion sickness history. Usability measures were assessed by spontaneous feedback from participants.
Results: All participants were able to understand the task instructions and how to interact with the system. Both tasks seemed to induce a strong sense of presence, as assessed by
the Witmer and Singer Presence Questionnaires (M=128 and 143 for SOIVET-Maze and SOIVET-Route, respectively). The SOIVET-Route had a small numeric advantage over the SOIVET-Maze tolerability scores assessed by the Cybersickness Questionnaire (M=4.19, SD=5.576 and M=3.52, SD=6.418 for SOIVET-Maze and SOIVET-Route respectively). Also, there were no drop-outs on the SOIVET-Route due to tolerability issues, unlike the SOIVET-Maze, which had two drop-outs. However, this difference was not statistically significant (Z= -.901, p= 0.368, Wilcoxon signed-rank test).
Conclusion(s): The SOIVET-Maze and SOIVET-Route seem to be well-tolerated, engaging and easy-to-use immersive tasks.
Implications: The present study yielded favorable results that encourage further investigation of the proposed tasks in different population and patient profiles.
Keywords: spatial orientation, ecological momentary assessment, immersive virtual reality
Funding acknowledgements: This work is part of a project funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), Grant: 2016/04984-3.
Topic: Robotics & technology; Mental health; Outcome measurement
Ethics approval required: Yes
Institution: University of Sao Paulo
Ethics committee: Hospital das Clínicas da FMUSP
Ethics number: 2319633
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
