Toward Healthy Living: Virtual Reality-Infused Treadmill Training on Aging-Related Outcomes

Summary

Age-associated motor and cognitive deficits increase the risk of falls, a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Emerging evidence suggests that inflammatory mediators lead to impaired functional capacity and frailty in the elderly and suggests that immune system mediated inflammation in the brain play an important role in cognitive decline. Substantial literature has also demonstrated that age-targeted physical activity training are promising strategies for promoting the motor-cognitive process across the adult lifespan. Recently, the virtual reality (VR) application has been implemented in the neuropsychological rehabilitation settings suggesting that the VR-infused daily living activities may benefit the transfer of intervention outcomes and to promote autonomy in function of daily living such as cooking or grocery shopping. However, it remains unclear the effect of the VR-based exercise intervention (motor-cognitive impact) on older adults' cognitive function and fall prevention. The literature suggests that the similarity of VR exercises with real life activities may improve generalizability by extending the transfer of gains of training to everyday living and promote some aspects of quality of life in older adults. It is also unclear to what extent these aging-associated motor- cognitive changes may be affected by VR rehab games and whether systemic- and neuro-inflammation is ameliorated by this novel intervention in older adults. This purpose of this study is to design and implement a Virtual Reality-Infused Treadmill Training on Aging-Related Outcomes (V-TARGET) intervention, focusing on adults (aged up to 75 years old). The study will compare the effects of V-TARGET intervention (self-paced treadmill-simulator exercise with VR rehab games) against a control group on motor-cognitive function, health-related quality of life (HRQOL), circulating inflammatory markers and cerebral/peripheral blood flow through this 5-week intervention (2 times/week, 30-minutes/session, 10 sessions total).

Description

Eligibility

Age range

18–75 years

Sex

All

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Interventions

• Device
  V-TARGET intervention

  V-TARGET intervention will be delivered through a 360 degree self-paced treadmill in a university clinical laboratory for 5-weeks (2 days/week, 30 minutes/session) with total 10 sessions. The treadmill is the first-of-kind motion platform that an individual can walk and run at self-paced speed in 360 degree (i.e., forwards, sideways and backwards) without risk of falling or colliding with other people. During the V-TARGET intervention, participants will self-pace their locomotor action (walking/running) while they wear the HTC vivo headset and experience daily exercises/games augmented by the VR Therapy System. Therapy System is a library of VR exercises/games targeted on neurological rehabilitation, balance improvement training as well as cognitive therapy suited for variety of conditions, and includes various daily living simulation activities such as Retail Shopping, Gait Training, Cafeteria Experience, and Nature Walk.

Location