Profiling wastewater characteristics in intra-urban catchments using online monitoring stations.

This study aims to investigate the differences in intra-urban catchments with different characteristics through real-time wastewater monitoring. Monitoring stations were installed in three neighbourhoods of Barcelona to measure flow, total chemical oxygen demand (COD), pH, conductivity, temperature, and bisulfide (HS-) for 1 year. Typical wastewater profiles were obtained for weekdays, weekends, and holidays in the summer and winter seasons. The results reveal differences in waking up times and evening routines, commuting behaviour during weekends and holidays, and water consumption. The pollutant profiles contribute to a better understanding of pollution generation in households and catchment activities. Flows and COD correlate well at all stations, but there are differences in conductivity and HS- at the station level. The article concludes by discussing the operational experience of the monitoring stations.

A Systematic Review of International Affective Picture System (IAPS) around the World.

Standardized Emotion Elicitation Databases (SEEDs) allow studying emotions in laboratory settings by replicating real-life emotions in a controlled environment. The International Affective Pictures System (IAPS), containing 1182 coloured images as stimuli, is arguably the most popular SEED. Since its introduction, multiple countries and cultures have validated this SEED, making its adoption on the study of emotion a worldwide success. For this review, 69 studies were included. Results focus on the discussion of validation processes by combining self-report and physiological data (Skin Conductance Level, Heart Rate Variability and Electroencephalography) and self-report only. Cross-age, cross-cultural and sex differences are discussed. Overall, IAPS is a robust instrument for emotion elicitation around the world.

Automatic Cognitive Fatigue Detection Using Wearable fNIRS and Machine Learning.

Wearable sensors have increasingly been applied in healthcare to generate data and monitor patients unobtrusively. Their application for Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) allows for unobtrusively monitoring one's cognitive state over time. A particular state relevant in multiple domains is cognitive fatigue, which may impact performance and attention, among other capabilities. The monitoring of this state will be applied in real learning settings to detect and advise on effective break periods. In this study, two functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) wearable devices were employed to build a BCI to automatically detect the state of cognitive fatigue using machine learning algorithms. An experimental procedure was developed to effectively induce cognitive fatigue that included a close-to-real digital lesson and two standard cognitive tasks: Corsi-Block task and a concentration task. Machine learning models were user-tuned to account for the individual dynamics of each participant, reaching classification accuracy scores of around 70.91 ± 13.67 %. We concluded that, although effective for some subjects, the methodology needs to be individually validated before being applied. Moreover, time on task was not a particularly determining factor for classification, i.e., to induce cognitive fatigue. Further research will include other physiological signals and human-computer interaction variables.

The use of game modes to promote engagement and social involvement in multi-user serious games: a within-person randomized trial with stroke survivors.

BACKGROUND: Serious games are promising for stroke rehabilitation, with studies showing a positive impact on reducing motor and cognitive deficits. However, most of the evidence is in the context of single-user rehabilitation, and little is known concerning the impact in multi-user settings. This study evaluates the impact that different game modes can have on engagement and social involvement during a two-user game. Specifically, we want to understand the benefits of game modalities based on competition, co-activation, and collaboration and analyze the influence of different motor and cognitive deficits and personality traits. METHODS: We developed a two-player setup-using tangible objects and a large screen interactive table-for upper limb rehabilitation purposes. We implemented a game that, while keeping the same basic mechanics, can be played in the three different modes (Competitive, Co-active, and Collaborative). We ran a within-person randomized study with 21 stroke survivors that were paired and played the game in its three versions. We used the Game Experience Questionnaire-Core Module to assess engagement and the Social Presence Module to assess Social Involvement. For personality, motor, and cognitive function, users answered the International Personality Item Pool (short version), Fugl-Meyer Assessment-Upper Extremity, Modified Ashworth Scale, and Montreal Cognitive Assessment, respectively. RESULTS: The Collaborative mode promoted significantly more Behavioral Involvement. The Competitive mode promoted more Flow and Challenge than the Co-active mode with participants with better cognitive performance, with low extraversion, or with higher motor skills. Participants with higher cognitive deficits reported more Competence with the Co-active mode. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that, for multi-user motor rehabilitation settings, the collaborative mode is the more appropriate gaming approach to promote social involvement, showing a high potential for increasing adherence and effectiveness of therapy. Additionally, we show that a player's motor and cognitive ability and personality should be considered when designing personalized tasks for multiplayer settings.

Clinical Effects of Immersive Multimodal BCI-VR Training after Bilateral Neuromodulation with rTMS on Upper Limb Motor Recovery after Stroke. A Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background and Objectives: The motor sequelae after a stroke are frequently persistent and cause a high degree of disability. Cortical ischemic or hemorrhagic strokes affecting the cortico-spinal pathways are known to cause a reduction of cortical excitability in the lesioned area not only for the local connectivity impairment but also due to a contralateral hemisphere inhibitory action. Non-invasive brain stimulation using high frequency repetitive magnetic transcranial stimulation (rTMS) over the lesioned hemisphere and contralateral cortical inhibition using low-frequency rTMS have been shown to increase the excitability of the lesioned hemisphere. Mental representation techniques, neurofeedback, and virtual reality have also been shown to increase cortical excitability and complement conventional rehabilitation. Materials and Methods: We aim to carry out a single-blind, randomized, controlled trial aiming to study the efficacy of immersive multimodal Brain-Computer Interfacing-Virtual Reality (BCI-VR) training after bilateral neuromodulation with rTMS on upper limb motor recovery after subacute stroke (>3 months) compared to neuromodulation combined with conventional motor imagery tasks. This study will include 42 subjects in a randomized controlled trial design. The main expected outcomes are changes in the Motricity Index of the Arm (MI), dynamometry of the upper limb, score according to Fugl-Meyer for upper limb (FMA-UE), and changes in the Stroke Impact Scale (SIS). The evaluation will be carried out before the intervention, after each intervention and 15 days after the last session. Conclusions: This trial will show the additive value of VR immersive motor imagery as an adjuvant therapy combined with a known effective neuromodulation approach opening new perspectives for clinical rehabilitation protocols.

A comparison of two personalization and adaptive cognitive rehabilitation approaches: a randomized controlled trial with chronic stroke patients.

BACKGROUND: Paper-and-pencil tasks are still widely used for cognitive rehabilitation despite the proliferation of new computer-based methods, like VR-based simulations of ADL's. Studies have established construct validity of VR assessment tools with their paper-and-pencil version by demonstrating significant associations with their traditional construct-driven measures. However, VR rehabilitation intervention tools are mostly developed to include mechanisms such as personalization and adaptation, elements that are disregarded in their paper-and-pencil counterparts, which is a strong limitation of comparison studies. Here we compare the clinical impact of a personalized and adapted paper-and-pencil training and a content equivalent and more ecologically valid VR-based ADL's simulation. METHODS: We have performed a trial with 36 stroke patients comparing Reh@City v2.0 (adaptive cognitive training through everyday tasks VR simulations) with Task Generator (TG: content equivalent and adaptive paper-and-pencil training). The intervention comprised 12 sessions, with a neuropsychological assessment pre, post-intervention and follow-up, having as primary outcomes: general cognitive functioning (assessed by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment - MoCA), attention, memory, executive functions and language specific domains. RESULTS: A within-group analysis revealed that the Reh@City v2.0 improved general cognitive functioning, attention, visuospatial ability and executive functions. These improvements generalized to verbal memory, processing speed and self-perceived cognitive deficits specific assessments. TG only improved in orientation domain on the MoCA, and specific processing speed and verbal memory outcomes. However, at follow-up, processing speed and verbal memory improvements were maintained, and a new one was revealed in language. A between-groups analysis revealed Reh@City v2.0 superiority in general cognitive functioning, visuospatial ability, and executive functions on the MoCA. CONCLUSIONS: The Reh@City v2.0 intervention with higher ecological validity revealed higher effectiveness with improvements in different cognitive domains and self-perceived cognitive deficits in everyday life, and the TG intervention retained fewer cognitive gains for longer. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02857803. Registered 5 August 2016, .

Impact of game mode in multi-user serious games for upper limb rehabilitation: a within-person randomized trial on engagement and social involvement.

BACKGROUND: Serious games have been increasingly used for motor rehabilitation. However, it is not well known how different game features can be used to impact specific skills properly. Here, we study how the mode (competitive, co-active, collaborative) in which a multi-user game is presented impacts engagement and social involvement. METHODS: We collected data from 20 pairs of community-dwelling older adults (71.5 ± 8.7 years) in a study following a within-persons design. The participants performed a two-player upper limb rehabilitation game with three conditions (Competitive, Co-active, and Collaborative modes). Engagement and social involvement were assessed through the Core Module and Social Presence Module, respectively, from the Game Experience Questionnaire. To infer the impact of personality and cognitive function, users answered the International Personality Item Pool (short version) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, respectively. RESULTS: Results show that the Collaborative game mode promotes more social involvement when compared to Competitive and Co-active modes. This result is mostly explained by those participants with higher cognitive skills, and those that are more extrovert. Extrovert participants feel more empathy and are behaviorally more involved when playing the Collaborative mode. Also, the Collaborative mode is shown to be appropriate to promote interaction with participants that previously had a distant relationship, while the Competitive mode seems to be more beneficial to promote empathy between players with a closer relationship. CONCLUSIONS: The Collaborative game mode elicited significantly higher social involvement in terms of Empathy, Positive Affect, and Behavioral Involvement. Hence, this game mode seems to be the most adequate choice to be used in multiplayer rehabilitation settings, where social interaction is intended.

Correlates of health-related quality of life in young-old and old-old community-dwelling older adults.

PURPOSE: This study aimed (1) to examine the role of potential correlates of HRQoL in a large representative sample of older adults, and (2) to investigate whether the relationships between HRQoL and potential factors differ as a function of HRQoL component (physical vs. mental) and/or age cohort (young-old vs. old-old). METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 802 older adults aged 60-79 years old. HRQoL was assessed using the SF-36 questionnaire. Functional fitness was assessed using the Senior Fitness Test. Physical activity was measured via the Baecke questionnaire. Demographic information, mental and health features were obtained through questionnaires. RESULTS: A multiple regression analysis showed that BMI (ß = -0.15, p = 0.001), body strength (ß = 0.21, p < 0.001), aerobic endurance (ß = 0.29, p < 0.001), physical activity (ß = 0.11, p = 0.007), depressive symptoms (ß = -0.19, p < 0.001), falls (ß = -0.19, p < 0.001), and living alone (ß = -0.16, p < 0.001) were all significantly related to HRQoL-SF-36 total score. The positive relation with aerobic endurance was significantly higher for the physical component of HRQoL, while the negative relation with living alone was significantly higher for the mental component. The positive relation of HRQoL with physical activity was significantly higher in old-old compared to young-old adults. CONCLUSION: This data suggest that body composition, functional fitness, psycho-social factors, and falls are important correlates of HRQoL in old age. There are HRQoL-component and age-cohort differences regarding these correlates, underlying the need for specific strategies at the community level to promote HRQoL in older adults.

Motor priming in virtual reality can augment motor-imagery training efficacy in restorative brain-computer interaction: a within-subject analysis.

BACKGROUND: The use of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology in neurorehabilitation provides new strategies to overcome stroke-related motor limitations. Recent studies demonstrated the brain's capacity for functional and structural plasticity through BCI. However, it is not fully clear how we can take full advantage of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying recovery and how to maximize restoration through BCI. In this study we investigate the role of multimodal virtual reality (VR) simulations and motor priming (MP) in an upper limb motor-imagery BCI task in order to maximize the engagement of sensory-motor networks in a broad range of patients who can benefit from virtual rehabilitation training. METHODS: In order to investigate how different BCI paradigms impact brain activation, we designed 3 experimental conditions in a within-subject design, including an immersive Multimodal Virtual Reality with Motor Priming (VRMP) condition where users had to perform motor-execution before BCI training, an immersive Multimodal VR condition, and a control condition with standard 2D feedback. Further, these were also compared to overt motor-execution. Finally, a set of questionnaires were used to gather subjective data on Workload, Kinesthetic Imagery and Presence. RESULTS: Our findings show increased capacity to modulate and enhance brain activity patterns in all extracted EEG rhythms matching more closely those present during motor-execution and also a strong relationship between electrophysiological data and subjective experience. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that both VR and particularly MP can enhance the activation of brain patterns present during overt motor-execution. Further, we show changes in the interhemispheric EEG balance, which might play an important role in the promotion of neural activation and neuroplastic changes in stroke patients in a motor-imagery neurofeedback paradigm. In addition, electrophysiological correlates of psychophysiological responses provide us with valuable information about the motor and affective state of the user that has the potential to be used to predict MI-BCI training outcome based on user's profile. Finally, we propose a BCI paradigm in VR, which gives the possibility of motor priming for patients with low level of motor control.

Benefits of virtual reality based cognitive rehabilitation through simulated activities of daily living: a randomized controlled trial with stroke patients.

BACKGROUND: Stroke is one of the most common causes of acquired disability, leaving numerous adults with cognitive and motor impairments, and affecting patients' capability to live independently. There is substancial evidence on post-stroke cognitive rehabilitation benefits, but its implementation is generally limited by the use of paper-and-pencil methods, insufficient personalization, and suboptimal intensity. Virtual reality tools have shown potential for improving cognitive rehabilitation by supporting carefully personalized, ecologically valid tasks through accessible technologies. Notwithstanding important progress in VR-based cognitive rehabilitation systems, specially with Activities of Daily Living (ADL's) simulations, there is still a need of more clinical trials for its validation. In this work we present a one-month randomized controlled trial with 18 stroke in and outpatients from two rehabilitation units: 9 performing a VR-based intervention and 9 performing conventional rehabilitation. METHODS: The VR-based intervention involved a virtual simulation of a city - Reh@City - where memory, attention, visuo-spatial abilities and executive functions tasks are integrated in the performance of several daily routines. The intervention had levels of difficulty progression through a method of fading cues. There was a pre and post-intervention assessment in both groups with the Addenbrooke Cognitive Examination (primary outcome) and the Trail Making Test A and B, Picture Arrangement from WAIS III and Stroke Impact Scale 3.0 (secondary outcomes). RESULTS: A within groups analysis revealed significant improvements in global cognitive functioning, attention, memory, visuo-spatial abilities, executive functions, emotion and overall recovery in the VR group. The control group only improved in self-reported memory and social participation. A between groups analysis, showed significantly greater improvements in global cognitive functioning, attention and executive functions when comparing VR to conventional therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that cognitive rehabilitation through the Reh@City, an ecologically valid VR system for the training of ADL's, has more impact than conventional methods. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This trial was not registered because it is a small sample study that evaluates the clinical validity of a prototype virtual reality system.

The impact of positive, negative and neutral stimuli in a virtual reality cognitive-motor rehabilitation task: a pilot study with stroke patients.

BACKGROUND: Virtual Reality (VR) based methods for stroke rehabilitation have mainly focused on motor rehabilitation, but there is increasing interest in integrating motor and cognitive training to increase similarity to real-world settings. Unfortunately, more research is needed for the definition of which type of content should be used in the design of these tools. One possibility is the use of emotional stimuli, which are known to enhance attentional processes. According to the Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, as people age, the emotional salience arises for positive and neutral, but not for negative stimuli. METHODS: For this study we developed a cognitive-motor VR task involving attention and short-term memory, and we investigated the impact of using emotional images of varying valence. The task consisted of finding a target image, shown for only two seconds, among fourteen neutral distractors, and selecting it through arm movements. After performing the VR task, a recall task took place and the patients had to identify the target images among a valence-matched number of distractors. Ten stroke patients participated in a within-subjects experiment with three conditions based on the valence of the images: positive, negative and neutral. Eye movements were recorded during VR task performance with an eye tracking system. RESULTS: Our results show decreased attention for negative stimuli in the VR task performance when compared to neutral stimuli. The recall task shows significantly more wrongly identified images (false memories) for negative stimuli than for neutral. Regression and correlation analyses with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and the Geriatric Depression Scale revealed differential effects of cognitive function and depressive symptomatology in the encoding and recall of positive, negative and neutral images. Further, eye movement data shows reduced search patterns for wrongly selected stimuli containing emotional content. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that it is feasible to use emotional content in a VR based cognitive-motor task for attention and memory training after stroke. Stroke survivors showed less attention towards negative information, exhibiting reduced visual search patterns and more false memories. We have also shown that the use of emotional stimuli in a VR task can provide additional information regarding patient's mood and cognitive status.

The impact of exergames on the functional balance of a teenager with cerebral palsy - a case report.

PURPOSE: To understand the impact of an intensive rehabilitation program based on exergames in balance and lower limb function in a teenager with cerebral palsy. METHODS: The rehabilitation program comprised different customised exergames and was delivered in 5 weekly sessions of 30 min for 4 weeks. Pre-, post-, and 1-month Follow-up assessments included the following metrics: Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Dynamic Gait Index (DGI), Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM), Posturography, and Gait analysis. RESULTS: We observed increased scores after the intervention of 9/72 points in GMF - Module E (Walk, Run and Jump) and of 9/56 points in BBS, sustained at Follow-up. Changes in function, specifically in the quality and independence of the performance of specific movements such as turning 360°, increased distance reaching forward, walk behind, step over obstacles, and step stairs up and down were also observed. Gait kinematics and Spatio-temporal parameters tended to get closer to the 50th percentile. CONCLUSIONS: We observed positive changes in motor function of a teenager with cerebral palsy, with sustained increased scores at a 1-month Follow-up. Findings are suggestive that intensive rehabilitation programs using exergames with high customisation features are a potentially valuable rehabilitation tool for training balance in teenagers with Cerebral Palsy.Implications for rehabilitationExergames may be a useful for providing balance training for teenagers who have a mixed form of cerebral palsy.Exergames that require body displacement may be suitable for modulating gait kinematics and spatio-temporal parameters.The customisation of virtual rehabilitation tools seems to impact the motivation and effort of the user positively.

Design, development, and evaluation of an interactive personalized social robot to monitor and coach post-stroke rehabilitation exercises.

Socially assistive robots are increasingly being explored to improve the engagement of older adults and people with disability in health and well-being-related exercises. However, even if people have various physical conditions, most prior work on social robot exercise coaching systems has utilized generic, predefined feedback. The deployment of these systems still remains a challenge. In this paper, we present our work of iteratively engaging therapists and post-stroke survivors to design, develop, and evaluate a social robot exercise coaching system for personalized rehabilitation. Through interviews with therapists, we designed how this system interacts with the user and then developed an interactive social robot exercise coaching system. This system integrates a neural network model with a rule-based model to automatically monitor and assess patients' rehabilitation exercises and can be tuned with individual patient's data to generate real-time, personalized corrective feedback for improvement. With the dataset of rehabilitation exercises from 15 post-stroke survivors, we demonstrated our system significantly improves its performance to assess patients' exercises while tuning with held-out patient's data. In addition, our real-world evaluation study showed that our system can adapt to new participants and achieved 0.81 average performance to assess their exercises, which is comparable to the experts' agreement level. We further discuss the potential benefits and limitations of our system in practice.

Ecologically valid virtual reality-based technologies for assessment and rehabilitation of acquired brain injury: a systematic review.

Purpose: A systematic review was conducted to examine the state of the literature regarding using ecologically valid virtual environments and related technologies to assess and rehabilitate people with Acquired Brain Injury (ABI). Materials and methods: A literature search was performed following the PRISMA guidelines using PubMed, Web of Science, ACM and IEEE databases. The focus was on assessment and intervention studies using ecologically valid virtual environments (VE). All studies were included if they involved individuals with ABI and simulated environments of the real world or Activities of Daily Living (ADL). Results: Seventy out of 363 studies were included in this review and grouped and analyzed according to the nature of its simulation, prefacing a total of 12 kitchens, 11 supermarkets, 10 shopping malls, 16 streets, 11 cities, and 10 other everyday life scenarios. These VE were mostly presented on computer screens, HMD's and laptops and patients interacted with them primarily via mouse, keyboard, and joystick. Twenty-five out of 70 studies had a non-experimental design. Conclusion: Evidence about the clinical impact of ecologically valid VE is still modest, and further research with more extensive samples is needed. It is important to standardize neuropsychological and motor outcome measures to strengthen conclusions between studies. Systematic review registration: identifier CRD42022301560, https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=301560.

Brain activation by a VR-based motor imagery and observation task: An fMRI study.

Training motor imagery (MI) and motor observation (MO) tasks is being intensively exploited to promote brain plasticity in the context of post-stroke rehabilitation strategies. This may benefit from the use of closed-loop neurofeedback, embedded in brain-computer interfaces (BCI's) to provide an alternative non-muscular channel, which may be further augmented through embodied feedback delivered through virtual reality (VR). Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a group of healthy adults to map brain activation elicited by an ecologically-valid task based on a VR-BCI paradigm called NeuRow, whereby participants perform MI of rowing with the left or right arm (i.e., MI), while observing the corresponding movement of the virtual arm of an avatar (i.e., MO), on the same side, in a first-person perspective. We found that this MI-MO task elicited stronger brain activation when compared with a conventional MI-only task based on the Graz BCI paradigm, as well as to an overt motor execution task. It recruited large portions of the parietal and occipital cortices in addition to the somatomotor and premotor cortices, including the mirror neuron system (MNS), associated with action observation, as well as visual areas related with visual attention and motion processing. Overall, our findings suggest that the virtual representation of the arms in an ecologically-valid MI-MO task engage the brain beyond conventional MI tasks, which we propose could be explored for more effective neurorehabilitation protocols.

NeuroAIreh@b: an artificial intelligence-based methodology for personalized and adaptive neurorehabilitation.

Cognitive impairments are a prevalent consequence of acquired brain injury, dementia, and age-related cognitive decline, hampering individuals' daily functioning and independence, with significant societal and economic implications. While neurorehabilitation represents a promising avenue for addressing these deficits, traditional rehabilitation approaches face notable limitations. First, they lack adaptability, offering one-size-fits-all solutions that may not effectively meet each patient's unique needs. Furthermore, the resource-intensive nature of these interventions, often confined to clinical settings, poses barriers to widespread, cost-effective, and sustained implementation, resulting in suboptimal outcomes in terms of intervention adaptability, intensity, and duration. In response to these challenges, this paper introduces NeuroAIreh@b, an innovative cognitive profiling and training methodology that uses an AI-driven framework to optimize neurorehabilitation prescription. NeuroAIreh@b effectively bridges the gap between neuropsychological assessment and computational modeling, thereby affording highly personalized and adaptive neurorehabilitation sessions. This approach also leverages virtual reality-based simulations of daily living activities to enhance ecological validity and efficacy. The feasibility of NeuroAIreh@b has already been demonstrated through a clinical study with stroke patients employing a tablet-based intervention. The NeuroAIreh@b methodology holds the potential for efficacy studies in large randomized controlled trials in the future.

The combined impact of virtual reality neurorehabilitation and its interfaces on upper extremity functional recovery in patients with chronic stroke.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Although there is strong evidence on the beneficial effects of virtual reality (VR)-based rehabilitation, it is not yet well understood how the different aspects of these systems affect recovery. Consequently, we do not exactly know what features of VR neurorehabilitation systems are decisive in conveying their beneficial effects. METHODS: To specifically address this issue, we developed 3 different configurations of the same VR-based rehabilitation system, the Rehabilitation Gaming System, using 3 different interface technologies: vision-based tracking, haptics, and a passive exoskeleton. Forty-four patients with chronic stroke were randomly allocated to one of the configurations and used the system for 35 minutes a day for 5 days a week during 4 weeks. RESULTS: Our results revealed significant within-subject improvements at most of the standard clinical evaluation scales for all groups. Specifically we observe that the beneficial effects of VR-based training are modulated by the use/nonuse of compensatory movement strategies and the specific sensorimotor contingencies presented to the user, that is, visual feedback versus combined visual haptic feedback. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the beneficial effects of VR-based neurorehabilitation systems such as the Rehabilitation Gaming System for the treatment of chronic stroke depend on the specific interface systems used. These results have strong implications for the design of future VR rehabilitation strategies that aim at maximizing functional outcomes and their retention. Clinical Trial Registration- This trial was not registered because it is a small clinical study that evaluates the feasibility of prototype devices.

Evaluation of a Low-Cost Virtual Reality Surround-Screen Projection System.

Two of the most popular mediums for virtual reality are head-mounted displays and surround-screen projection systems, such as CAVE Automatic Virtual Environments. In recent years, HMDs suffered a significant reduction in cost and have become widespread consumer products. In contrast, CAVEs are still expensive and remain accessible to a limited number of researchers. This study aims to evaluate both objective and subjective characteristics of a CAVE-like monoscopic low-cost virtual reality surround-screen projection system compared to advanced setups and HMDs. For objective results, we measured the head position estimation accuracy and precision of a low-cost active infrared (IR) based tracking system, used in the proposed low-cost CAVE, relatively to an infrared marker-based tracking system, used in a laboratory-grade CAVE system. For subjective characteristics, we investigated the sense of presence and cybersickness elicited in users during a visual search task outside personal space, beyond arms reach, where the importance of stereo vision is diminished. Thirty participants rated their sense of presence and cybersickness after performing the VR search task with our CAVE-like system and a modern HMD. The tracking showed an accuracy error of 1.66 cm and .4 mm of precision jitter. The system was reported to elicit presence but at a lower level than the HMD, while causing significant lower cybersickness. Our results were compared to a previous study performed with a laboratory-grade CAVE and support that a VR system implemented with low-cost devices could be a viable alternative to laboratory-grade CAVEs for visual search tasks outside the user's personal space.

Feasibility, Acceptability, and Preliminary Impact of Full-Body Interaction on Computerized Cognitive Training Based on Instrumental Activities of Daily Living: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial with Chronic Psychiatric Inpatients.

Objective: To conduct a pilot randomized control trial to assess the feasibility and acceptability of full-body interaction cognitive training (FBI-CT) inspired by instrumental activities of daily living in chronic psychiatric inpatients and to explore its preliminary impact on cognitive and noncognitive outcomes. Materials and Methods: Twenty psychiatric inpatients met the inclusion criteria and were randomly allocated to the FBI-CT group (n = 10) or the tablet-based CT group (T-CT) (n = 10). Neuropsychological assessments were performed at baseline, postintervention, and 3-month follow-up. Results: Both groups presented high completion rates at postintervention and follow-up. Participants reported high satisfaction following the interventions, with the FBI-CT group exhibiting slightly higher satisfaction. A within-group analysis showed significant improvements in the FBI-CT group for processing speed and sustained attention for short periods (P = 0.012), verbal memory (P = 0.008), semantic fluency (P = 0.027), depressive symptoms (P = 0.008), and quality of life (P = 0.008) at postintervention. At 3-month follow-up, this group maintained verbal memory improvements (P = 0.047) and depressive symptoms amelioration (P = 0.026). The T-CT group revealed significant improvements in sustained attention for long periods (P = 0.020), verbal memory (P = 0.014), and executive functions (P = 0.047) postintervention. A between-group analysis demonstrated that the FBI-CT group exhibited greater improvements in depressive symptoms (P = 0.042). Conclusions: Overall, we found support for the feasibility and acceptability of both training approaches. Our findings show promise regarding the preliminary impact of the FBI-CT intervention, but due to study limitations such as the small sample size, we cannot conclude that FBI-CT is a more effective approach than T-CT for enhancing cognitive and noncognitive outcomes of chronic psychiatric inpatients. Clinical trials (number: NCT05100849).

Non-linear neuronal responses as an emergent property of afferent networks: a case study of the locust lobula giant movement detector.

In principle it appears advantageous for single neurons to perform non-linear operations. Indeed it has been reported that some neurons show signatures of such operations in their electrophysiological response. A particular case in point is the Lobula Giant Movement Detector (LGMD) neuron of the locust, which is reported to locally perform a functional multiplication. Given the wide ramifications of this suggestion with respect to our understanding of neuronal computations, it is essential that this interpretation of the LGMD as a local multiplication unit is thoroughly tested. Here we evaluate an alternative model that tests the hypothesis that the non-linear responses of the LGMD neuron emerge from the interactions of many neurons in the opto-motor processing structure of the locust. We show, by exposing our model to standard LGMD stimulation protocols, that the properties of the LGMD that were seen as a hallmark of local non-linear operations can be explained as emerging from the dynamics of the pre-synaptic network. Moreover, we demonstrate that these properties strongly depend on the details of the synaptic projections from the medulla to the LGMD. From these observations we deduce a number of testable predictions. To assess the real-time properties of our model we applied it to a high-speed robot. These robot results show that our model of the locust opto-motor system is able to reliably stabilize the movement trajectory of the robot and can robustly support collision avoidance. In addition, these behavioural experiments suggest that the emergent non-linear responses of the LGMD neuron enhance the system's collision detection acuity. We show how all reported properties of this neuron are consistently reproduced by this alternative model, and how they emerge from the overall opto-motor processing structure of the locust. Hence, our results propose an alternative view on neuronal computation that emphasizes the network properties as opposed to the local transformations that can be performed by single neurons.