Virtual reality for clinical assessment of elderly people: Early screening for dementia

Today, there are 24.3 million people suffering from dementia worldwide, that is a new case every 7 seconds (Ferri et al., 2005) and more than 80 million cases expected in 2040. Aging-related morbidity is a real social problem making screening a major challenge. Currently, screening and diagnostic tools for dementia remain independent from each other, screening tools being non-specific and diagnostic tools non-naturalistic. With the technological possibilities offered by virtual reality, it is becoming easier to investigate cognition and behavior in elderly people. Virtual reality allows a better understanding and assessment, and perhaps could stimulate cognitive functioning of elderly people. Combining measurements of cognitive impairment and disability might help close the gap between structural and naturalistic validity. (C) 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.