Effectiveness and individual differences in a virtual reality-based gait motor imagery intervention.

JRCT ID: jRCT1070230080

Registered date:04/11/2023

Basic Information

• Recruitment status: Pending
• Health condition(s) or Problem(s) studied: Frail Elderly
• Date of first enrollment: 04/11/2023
• Target sample size: 30
• Study type: Interventional
• Intervention(s): The participants must observe a first-person perspective or an avatar walking on a large VR space (e.g. forest, riverside) for 10 minutes per set. The intervention task is carried out for a period of 6 weeks, 2 sets of 10 minutes each time, 2 times/week, while changing the environment in which it is presented to avoid boredom.

Outcome(s)

• Primary Outcome: Gait task, Trail Making Test (TMT-A, TMT-B), Digit span, Corsi task, Brain activity during gait motor imagery using functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS).
• Secondary Outcome: Timed Up & Go Test (TUG), Grip, Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE).

Key inclusion & exclusion criteria

• Age minimum: >= 70age old
• Age maximum: < 90age old
• Gender: Both
• Include criteria: 30 elderly subjects (including frail) using day services who have sufficient hearing and understanding to communicate daily without difficulty and who can perform walking movements with (or without) canes such as a cane daily.
• Exclude criteria: Excludes persons with significantly reduced motor function, dementia, or other gait impairments that make it impossible to perform the gait task.

Related Information

• Primary Sponsor: Kohei Kotegawa