Diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease based on virtual environments

Abstract

Alzheimer's screening tests are currently used by doctors as part of a thorough patient examination. These tests are performed periodically in specific time intervals trying to estimate the patient's condition and stage as early as possible. This work proposes a novel e-health Alzheimer's screening test based on virtual environments using new immersive technologies combined with advanced Human Computer Interaction (HCI) systems. These new tests are focused on the immersion of the patient in a virtual room, in order to mislead and deceive the patient's mind. As a result, two new tests are introduced demonstrating the wide range of screening mechanisms that could be designed using virtual environments. The proposed tests are focused on the evaluation of memory loss related to common objects, recent conversations and events, the diagnosis of problems in expressing and understanding language and the ability to differentiate between virtual worlds and reality. The proposed screening tests were evaluated and tested using both patients and healthy adults in a comparative study with state-of-the-art Alzheimer's screening tests.