Estudo sobre os benefícios da estimulação cognitiva com recurso à realidade virtual em indivíduos com a doença de Alzheimer numa fase leve a moderada

Abstract

Ageing is part of the cycle of life and, therefore, involves a number of physiological, sensorial, cognitive, emotional, etc. declines. In the last years, owing to the increasing pop-ulation ageing, the Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) has turned to be a problem of great medical and social dimensions. The assessment and treatment of cognitive functions are a growing area in the neurocognitive rehabilitation and with the recent advances technological allowed in Virtual Reality (VR) it has become an increasing subject of research. In this logic, the present research has got as main objectives: to assess the impact of using a Virtual Reality program in the maintenance of cognitive functions in the elderly with Alzheimer’s Disease, also assess if the phase of the disease in which the participants are, has any influence in keeping the performance in the different tests and, finally, to check to what extent the level of education may interfere in the individual performance. With a sampling of 7 participants with AD in a mild and moderate phase, aged be-tween 72 and 88 who were subject to 12 sessions of training in a Systemic Lisbon Battery (SLB) virtual reality game. The results suggest that there is a higher decline in the tests associated to the execu-tive functions, whereas the cognitive functions have been preserved; it was also found that the mild phase was not associated to a better performance but rather the moderate phase and that a higher level of education was associated to a better performance after the training session. We may conclude that the use of cognitive intervention through SLB can be favour-able and recommended, mainly in the maintenance and preservation of some cognitive func-tions, such as: memory, language, orientation and withholding.

Date of Award	2020
Original language	Portuguese
Supervisor	Maria Teresa Soares Souto (Supervisor)