Ecological assessment of unilateral spatial neglect in immersive virtual reality: A multiple-case study to assess the feasibility and relevance of a Baking Tray Task
Year: 2024
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: The assessment of unilateral spatial neglect (USN) primarily relies on paper-and-pencil tests, which do not fully represent daily life difficulties. To address this limitation, ecological tests, like the Baking Tray Test (BTT), have been developed. However, the original BTT identifies the presence of USN without providing information on its severity. In this aim, a new severity measure, the Centre of Mass (CoM), has been proposed, but its calculation in real environments poses challenges. Immersive virtual reality (VR) offers a promising solution for implementing a BTT in which measures are automatically calculated. This study aimed to assess the feasibility and relevance of an immersive VR BTT. Nineteen right brain-damaged patients with and without USN and 25 healthy participants were included. Group analyses showed an equivalence between the two BTT versions. Individual analyses revealed that all USN patients, except one, had pathological results in both versions. They also underlined pathological scores in patients without USN signs on paper-and-pencil tests. Finally, the CoM strongly correlated with paper-and-pencil tests and appeared to be a good indicator of USN severity. These findings support the relevance of implementing the BTT in an immersive VR version, suggesting its potential to enhance USN assessment.
Institutions: Université Paris Cité, Laboratoire Vision Action Cognition, Sorbonne Université, Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris, Handicap moteur et cognitif et réadaptation, Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Centre d'études et de recherche en informatique et communications, Université Paris-Saclay, Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire des Sciences du Numérique
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4402747988