Preclinical evaluation of a virtual reality neuropsychological test system: Occurrence of side effects

Abstract

The University of Goettingen the Interdisciplinary Virtual Reality Research Group developed a neuropsychological test system that was supported by virtual reality (VR). The test system was designed in order to evaluate VR technology for the diagnostics of neuropsychological orientation disorders. To identify application problems, a preclinical evaluation study has been done. Side effects and task performance have been documented and analyzed for 22 probands. Focusing on side effects, we evaluated the difference between two projection modalities (head mounted display [HMD] and one-wall projection [OWP]). Furthermore two different VR environments (maze and park) were applied. The VR system demonstrated a good overall functionality, only a few problems occurred during the tests with the HMD. In regard to simulator sickness, a higher level of simulator sickness was observed in the HMD group. All other parameters did not differ substantially. Our VR-system with the neuropsychological tests for orientation disorders proved to be suitable for testing patients under controlled conditions. However, the application of VR-environments in clinical use with patients needs further investigation.