Assessment of cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease using a Virtual Reality-based spatial navigation task

Abstract

Patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) often experience cognitive decline, such as visuospatial abilities, as well as impairments in motor function. In this study, we assessed the cognitive abilities of PD patients using a Virtual Reality (VR)-based spatial navigation task. We confirmed the validity of the VR task performance as an index of cognitive abilities by relating them to the conventional screening test score. Moreover, showing its potential as a novel screening test, we found a significant difference in the task performance between PD patients and the healthy controls.