半側空間無視に対するバーチャルリアリティを用いた3次元空間における探索行動の評価方法の開発

抄録

This study aims to assess the usability of virtual reality (VR) evaluations for patients with unilateral spatial neglect (USN) and evaluates their visuospatial cognitive function in three dimensions. We developed a method using VR evaluation to analyze exploratory behavior in space. The evaluation tasks involved line bisection and search tasks, allowing analysis of task completion status, eye and head movements, and task completion time. To determine the reliability and usefulness of the ratings, an experiment was conducted involving 10 left USN group members and 56 non-clinical group members. The results demonstrated limited reliability among VR ratings, with observed correlations between VR and desk-based evaluations in some tasks. Notably, VR evaluation identified symptomatic cases that were undetected by desk evaluation. Overall, this study highlights the different aspects assessed by VR compared to desk-based evaluation and suggests new possibilities for evaluating visuospatial cognitive function in USN.