Abstract
Early detection of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is critical, with spatial navigation impairment being a promising biomarker. This study validates the feasibility of using immersive navigation tasks in Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) for cognitive screening. By integrating design thinking into task construction, the study also examines how narrative framing and spatial layout influence user comprehension and engagement. Eleven healthy young adults completed the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and performed egocentric and allocentric navigation tasks across three difficulty levels on Meta Quest 3. Results demonstrated high task accuracy in both environments, with MR showing significantly lower motion sickness and higher immersion. Although no significant correlation emerged between MoCA scores and navigation metrics (e.g., time, path deviation), a negative trend was observed, indicating a link between cognitive performance and task completion time. Task difficulty modulation showed limited effectiveness, though Level 2's complex layouts modestly increased allocentric demands. The study identifies MR's advantages in terms of ecological validity and user comfort, while highlighting design refinements needed for enhanced sensitivity, including obstacle placement optimisation and diverse participant sampling. These findings establish a methodological foundation for deploying immersive navigation tasks in clinical AD screening.
Keywords
Alzheimer's disease; spatial navigation; virtual and mixed reality; cognitive assessment
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.425
Citation
Lin, C., Cai, P., Wang, Z., Zhang, R., Ning, W.,and Hua, M.(2025) A Design and Feasibility Study of Virtual Navigation Tasks for Early-Stage Alzheimer's Disease Detection., IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taipei, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.425
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 9 - Healthcare Design
A Design and Feasibility Study of Virtual Navigation Tasks for Early-Stage Alzheimer's Disease Detection
Early detection of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is critical, with spatial navigation impairment being a promising biomarker. This study validates the feasibility of using immersive navigation tasks in Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) for cognitive screening. By integrating design thinking into task construction, the study also examines how narrative framing and spatial layout influence user comprehension and engagement. Eleven healthy young adults completed the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and performed egocentric and allocentric navigation tasks across three difficulty levels on Meta Quest 3. Results demonstrated high task accuracy in both environments, with MR showing significantly lower motion sickness and higher immersion. Although no significant correlation emerged between MoCA scores and navigation metrics (e.g., time, path deviation), a negative trend was observed, indicating a link between cognitive performance and task completion time. Task difficulty modulation showed limited effectiveness, though Level 2's complex layouts modestly increased allocentric demands. The study identifies MR's advantages in terms of ecological validity and user comfort, while highlighting design refinements needed for enhanced sensitivity, including obstacle placement optimisation and diverse participant sampling. These findings establish a methodological foundation for deploying immersive navigation tasks in clinical AD screening.