Towards a virtual reality cognitive training system for mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease patients

The rapid growth of the aged population has stimulated research directed at designing interventions to support the associated social, economic and health challenges in an elderly population. Environmental interventions, like cognitive rehabilitation, stimulation and training can significantly improve cognitive functioning, so mitigating the cognitive decline. In this area, the adoption of state-of-the-art virtual reality technologies can provide a cost-effective, flexible and comprehensive solution for realizing complex cognitive training environments. With the aim of preserving mnestic and logical-praxic functions of patients with MCI or Alzheimer's disease at the early stages, in this paper we describe our ongoing work in designing a novel, fullyequipped virtual reality cognitive training system. The system is characterized by a high degree of realism and interactivity, to provide the patient with an adequate sense of presence within the virtual environment. Moreover, it is able to monitor the patient's biomedical signals and collect quantitative data on the training sessions, so allowing the therapist to analyze and tailor the training strategies to the patient.