[Contribution of virtual reality to neuropsychology of memory: study in aging]

(Apport de la réalité virtuelle en neuropsychologie de la mémoire : étude dans le vieillissement.)

Full Abstract

The principal interest of virtual reality is its potential to create experiments close to daily life with a perfect experimental control. In a first time, we review the studies illustrating the contribution of virtual reality for neuropsychology, mainly for memory study. In a second time, we present the results of an experiment in which the subjects were driving in a virtual town, that tested all the episodic memory components, i.e. the memories of what, where and when events happened. Young and elderly adults performed the virtual test, either with intentional or incidental encoding, and either in active (they drove a virtual car) or passive exploration of the town (they were passengers). The results showed that older subjects recalled the spatiotemporal context and the details of the events in a lower proportion than younger, as well in active as in passive condition. Subject's memory complaints were correlated with the virtual scores, but not with usual verbal episodic memory tests. Therefore, virtual tests seem to allow a better assessment of episodic memory than the usual ones, especially because of their spatiotemporal memory assessment, and appear to be a hopeful tool for a neuropsychology closer to patient's daily life than the usual tests.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Plancher, Gaën (G); Nicolas, Serge (S); Piolino, Pascale (P);

Affiliation: Groupe de Recherche Mémoire et Apprentissage, Laboratoire de Psychologie et de Neurosciences Cognitives, CNRS, UMR 8189, Université Paris Descartes, Boulogne-Billancourt, France.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: English Abstract; Journal Article; Review

Journal: Psychologie & neuropsychiatrie du vieillissement (Psychol Neuropsychiatr Vieil), published in France. (Language: fre)

Reference: 2008-Mar; vol 6 (issue 1) : pp 7-22

Dates: Created 2008/03/26; Completed 2008/05/28;

PMID: 18364292, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Humans
Memory - physiology
Neuropsychology - methods

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.