scholarly journals Age-related differences in gait adaptations during overground walking with and without visual perturbations using a virtual reality headset

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muyinat Y. Osaba ◽  
Dario Martelli ◽  
Antonio Prado ◽  
Sunil K. Agrawal ◽  
Anil K. Lalwani
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Mixed Design ◽  
Overground Walking ◽  
New Methods ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Gait Parameters ◽  
Young Subjects

Abstract Older adults have difficulty adapting to new visual information, posing a challenge to maintain balance during walking. Virtual reality can be used to study gait adaptability in response to discordant sensorimotor stimulations. This study aimed to investigate age-related modifications and propensity for visuomotor adaptations due to continuous visual perturbations during overground walking in a virtual reality headset. Twenty old and twelve young subjects walked on an instrumented walkway in real and virtual environments while reacting to antero-posterior and medio-lateral oscillations of the visual field. Mean and variability of spatiotemporal gait parameters were calculated during the first and fifth minutes of walking. A 3-way mixed-design ANOVA was performed to determine the main and interaction effects of group, condition and time. Both groups modified gait similarly, but older adults walked with shorter and slower strides and did not reduce stride velocity or increase stride width variability during medio-lateral perturbations. This may be related to a more conservative and anticipatory strategy as well as a reduced perception of the optic flow. Over time, participants adapted similarly to the perturbations but only younger participants reduced their stride velocity variability. Results provide novel evidence of age- and context-dependent visuomotor adaptations in response to visual perturbations during overground walking and may help to establish new methods for early identification and remediation of gait deficits.

scholarly journals A Pilot Study Exploring Age Differences in Presence, Workload, and Cybersickness in the Experience of Immersive Virtual Reality Environments

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew T. Dilanchian ◽  
Ronald Andringa ◽  
Walter R. Boot
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Activities Of Daily Living ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Daily Living ◽  
Emotional Health ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Adoption Of Technology ◽  
Age Related

Research is often focused on understanding barriers to the use and adoption of technology to support older adults’ (65+) instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs), such as communication, banking, and transportation. Less attention is paid to technology to support enhanced activities of daily living (EADLs), activities that enrich our daily lives, even though they have the potential to improve wellbeing, promote physical and emotional health, and reduce stress. Here, we explored how older adults interacted with commercial virtual reality (VR) to investigate the feasibility of using VR as an EADL support system. Older adults navigated different VR environments, including environments that were meditation, exploration, and game-oriented. Of particular interest was whether older adults (N = 20) psychologically experienced differing degrees of presence within virtual environments compared to younger adults (N = 20), and potential barriers to use as assessed by measures of workload and system usability. Given previously observed age-related differences in cybersickness, this was also assessed as a potential barrier. Compared to younger adults, older adults expressed a greater sense of presence in virtual environments, with nonsignificant differences in perceived workload and usability according to most measures. Contrary to expectations, older adults reported significantly less cybersickness compared to younger adults. Results suggest that VR is a promising means to support older adults’ EADLs.

A comparison of immersive virtual reality with traditional neuropsychological measures in the assessment of executive functions

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Melissa Clare Davison ◽  
Catherine Deeprose ◽  
Sylvia Terbeck
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Real World ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Neuropsychological Measures ◽  
Seating Arrangement ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Initial Work ◽  
Neuropsychological Tasks

ObjectiveThis study investigated immersive virtual reality (IVR), as a novel technique to test executive function of healthy younger and older adults. We predicted IVR tasks to have greater predictive power than traditional measures when assessing age-related cognitive functioning due to the real-world validity of the tasks.MethodsParticipants (n=40) completed the Stroop colour–word test and the trail-making test (TMT) as traditional and commonly used assessments of executive functioning. Participants then completed three IVR tasks; a seating arrangement task, an item location task (both set in a virtual chemistry lab), and a virtual parking simulator.ResultsYounger adults completed significantly more parking simulator levels (p<0.001), placed significantly more objects (p<0.001), and located significantly more items than older adults (p<0.01), demonstrating higher levels of performance. Significant correlations were found between performance on traditional neuropsychological measures and IVR measures. For example, Stroop CW performance significantly correlated with the number of parking simulator levels completed (τ=0.43, p<0.01). This suggests that IVR measures assess the same underlying cognitive constructs as traditional tasks. In addition, IVR measures contributed a significant percentage of the explained variance in age.ConclusionIVR measures (i.e. number of parking simulator levels completed and number of objects placed in the seating arrangement task) were found to be stronger contributors than existing traditional neuropsychological tasks in predicting age-related cognitive decline. Future research should investigate the implementation of these real-world-based tasks in clinical groups given this promising initial work.

Design Recommendations to Enhance Virtual Reality Presence for Older Adults

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 2077-2081
Author(s):  
Sean A. McGlynn ◽  
Wendy A. Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
General Population ◽  
Design Recommendations ◽  
Advanced Technologies ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Older Users ◽  
Virtual Presence ◽  
Intended Effect ◽  
Design And Application

Virtual reality (VR) systems are becoming increasingly affordable for the general population. These technologies have potentially beneficial applications in a wide variety of contexts. Primary considerations for enhancing VR experiences in these contexts are the level of immersion enabled by the technology and the level of presence experienced by the user. Older adults are often overlooked during the design and application of VR technologies, even though these types of systems may help overcome certain aspects of the age-related challenges and limitations that they experience. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the applications of VR for older adults and to identify characteristics of older users that could impact the way they experience these advanced technologies. This review culminates in design recommendations for increasing the likelihood that the immersiveness of the VR system has its intended effect on the experience of virtual presence for older adults.

scholarly journals Using Participant Observation to Enable Critical Understandings of Disability in Later Life: An Illustration Conducted With Older Adults With Low Vision

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 160940691989129
Author(s):  
Colleen McGrath ◽  
Debbie Laliberte Rudman
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Vision Loss ◽  
Low Vision ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
New Methods ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Holistic Understanding

Research with older adults aging with vision loss has typically been informed by a biomedical theoretical framework. With a growing focus, however, on critical disability perspectives, which locates disability within the environment, new methods of data collection, such as participant observation, are needed. This article, which reports on the findings from a critical ethnographic study conducted with older adults with age-related vision loss (ARVL), aims to share those insights gained through participant observation and to demonstrate the utility of this method. Three insights were gained including the adaptive strategies tacitly employed to navigate the physical environment, a grounded understanding of social interactions that transpire in everyday contexts, and negating the presence of older adults with ARVL when accompanied by a perceived caregiver. The study findings unpack how participant observation can be used to understand social constructions of disability and gain a holistic understanding of environmental influences on the disability experience of older adults with ARVL.

scholarly journals A-028 Utilizing Virtual Reality to Assess the Relationship between Prospective Memory and Processing Speed

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 818-818
Author(s):  
Sawyer J ◽  
Barnett M ◽  
Bennett L ◽  
Donnell R ◽  
Flair A ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Prospective Memory ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Adult Intelligence Scale ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Crucial Component ◽  
Memory Measure ◽  
Event Based

Abstract Objective Processing speed may partially mediate age-related differences in prospective memory (PM) abilities (West & Craik, 2001). The present preliminary study aimed to further investigate the relationships between prospective memory and processing speed by utilizing a novel virtual reality-based prospective memory measure. The task was designed to assess the impacts of a virtual environment would facilitate a deeper level of processing and enhance prospective memory performance. Method 49 older adults (M = 73.87, SD = 8.24) and 39 younger adults(M = 18.87, SD =1.61) completed the Coding subtest of the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS- IV) as well as a virtual-reality prospective memory measure that utilized both time-based and event-based cues. Results Coding was strongly correlated with PM time-based cues (r = .43, p &#60; .01) and event-based cues (r = .53, p &lt; .001). There were no correlations between processing speed and prospective memory in the young adult sample. Conclusion This study suggests that processing speed is strongly related to virtual-reality based PM and suggests that processing speed is a crucial component in prospective memory outcomes in older adults. This novel task virtual reality task may provide construct validity against other prospective memory measures.

scholarly journals Age Differences in the Efficiency of Filtering and Ignoring Distraction in Visual Working Memory

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 556
Author(s):  
Mariana R. Maniglia ◽  
Alessandra S. Souza
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Continuous Scale ◽  
Single Feature

Healthy aging is associated with decline in the ability to maintain visual information in working memory (WM). We examined whether this decline can be explained by decreases in the ability to filter distraction during encoding or to ignore distraction during memory maintenance. Distraction consisted of irrelevant objects (Exp. 1) or irrelevant features of an object (Exp. 2). In Experiment 1, participants completed a spatial WM task requiring remembering locations on a grid. During encoding or during maintenance, irrelevant distractor positions were presented. In Experiment 2, participants encoded either single-feature (colors or orientations) or multifeature objects (colored triangles) and later reproduced one of these features using a continuous scale. In multifeature blocks, a precue appeared before encoding or a retrocue appeared during memory maintenance indicating with 100% certainty to the to-be-tested feature, thereby enabling filtering and ignoring of the irrelevant (not-cued) feature, respectively. There were no age-related deficits in the efficiency of filtering and ignoring distractor objects (Exp. 1) and of filtering irrelevant features (Exp. 2). Both younger and older adults could not ignore irrelevant features when cued with a retrocue. Overall, our results provide no evidence for an aging deficit in using attention to manage visual WM.

scholarly journals Configuring Virtual Reality Displays in a Mixed-Reality Environment for LVC Training

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon J. Newendorp ◽  
Christian Noon ◽  
Joe Holub ◽  
Eliot H. Winer ◽  
Stephen Gilbert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Mixed Reality ◽  
Tracking System ◽  
Training Environment ◽  
Terrain Model ◽  
New Methods ◽  
Military Forces ◽  
Game Engines ◽  
The Ideal

In order to adapt to an ever-changing set of threats, military forces need to find new methods of training. The prevalence of commercial game engines combined with virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality environments can prove beneficial to training. Live, virtual and constructive (LVC) training combines live people, virtual environments and simulated actors to create a better training environment. However, integrating virtual reality displays, software simulations and artificial weapons into a mixed reality environment poses numerous challenges. A mixed reality environment known as The Veldt was constructed to research these challenges. The Veldt consists of numerous independent displays, along with movable walls, doors and windows. This allows The Veldt to simulate numerous training scenarios. Several challenges were encountered in creating this system. Displays were precisely located using the tracking system, then configured using VR Juggler. The ideal viewpoint for each display was configured based on the expect location for users to be looking at it. Finally, the displays were accurately aligned to the virtual terrain model. This paper describes how the displays were configured in The Veldt, as well as how it was used for two training scenarios.

scholarly journals Motor-Unit Coherence During Isometric Contractions Is Greater in a Hand Muscle of Older Adults

2003 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 1346-1349 ◽  
Author(s):  
John G. Semmler ◽  
Kurt W. Kornatz ◽  
Roger M. Enoka
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Motor Unit ◽  
Motor Neurons ◽  
Common Input ◽  
Low Frequencies ◽  
Old Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Motor Unit Synchronization ◽  
Young Subjects ◽  
Using Data

The purpose of this study was to quantify the strength of motor-unit coherence from the first dorsal interosseus muscle in young and old adults using data obtained in a previous study, where no differences in motor-unit synchronization between the two groups were observed. The strength of motor-unit coherence was quantified from 47 motor-unit pairs in 11 young adults (age 24.1 ± 4.1 yrs) and from 48 motor-unit pairs in 14 old adults (age 70.4 ± 5.9 yrs). The strength of motor-unit coherence was greater in old adults, particularly at low frequencies of 5–9 Hz (85% greater in old adults at 5 Hz). In addition, the older adults expressed an extra oscillation at approximately 12–13 Hz that was not present in the young subjects. These data demonstrate that common oscillatory inputs to motor neurons (motor-unit coherence) are enhanced in older adults despite no age-related difference in the strength of shared inputs (synchronization). Furthermore, the data emphasize that measures of motor-unit synchronization and coherence highlight different features of the same common input, and a coherence analysis may be a more sensitive tool to characterize shared input to motor neurons.

scholarly journals Virtual Hand Illusion in younger and older adults

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 205566832110593
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Campos ◽  
Graziella El-Khechen Richandi ◽  
Marge Coahran ◽  
Lindsey E. Fraser ◽  
Babak Taati ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Tactile Feedback ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Localization Accuracy ◽  
Virtual Hand ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Spatio Temporal

Introduction Embodiment involves experiencing ownership over our body and localizing it in space and is informed by multiple senses (visual, proprioceptive and tactile). Evidence suggests that embodiment and multisensory integration may change with older age. The Virtual Hand Illusion (VHI) has been used to investigate multisensory contributions to embodiment, but has never been evaluated in older adults. Spatio-temporal factors unique to virtual environments may differentially affect the embodied perceptions of older and younger adults. Methods Twenty-one younger (18–35 years) and 19 older (65+ years) adults completed the VHI paradigm. Body localization was measured at baseline and again, with subjective ownership ratings, following synchronous and asynchronous visual-tactile interactions. Results Higher ownership ratings were observed in the synchronous relative to the asynchronous condition, but no effects on localization/drift were found. No age differences were observed. Localization accuracy was biased in both age groups when the virtual hand was aligned with the real hand, indicating a visual mislocalization of the virtual hand. Conclusions No age-related differences in the VHI were observed. Mislocalization of the hand in VR occurred for both groups, even when congruent and aligned; however, tactile feedback reduced localization biases. Our results expand the current understanding of age-related changes in multisensory embodiment within virtual environments.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document