Promoting emotional and cognitive well-being in older adults with cognitive impairment: Pilot study assessing the feasibility and efficacy of COGNIPLAT's VR-based serious games

The aim of this work is to examine whether virtual reality based serious games developed in the context of the COGNIPLAT platform have a positive effect on emotions in older adults with cognitive impairment. The feasibility and effectiveness of the approach was also evaluated in terms of cognitive improvement, effective learning, perceived usefulness and user-friendliness of the games even for the commonly digitally illiterate older people. Ten older adults with mild cognitive impairment participated in a pilot study and were asked to complete daily living virtual tasks by using the games of the platform for a period of six weeks. The evaluation of emotional and cognitive states was conducted before and after the participants' engagement with the games, utilizing validated measurement scales. The findings from the data analysis demonstrated a statistically significant increase in positive emotions and a decrease in negative emotions. In addition, the observed trend of improvements in the memory domain suggests an association with broader enhancements in global cognitive functions. The game experience, as well as the perceived usability and usefulness of the games, were evaluated as being highly satisfactory by the participants, indicating that the games were engaging, user-friendly, and effectively met the intended objectives. This preliminary study suggests that the use of virtual reality-based games in older people with cognitive impairment is feasible, enjoyable, and can induce positive emotional changes while fostering improvements in cognitive function.