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Behavioural Neurology 23 (2010) 209–211 209
DOI 10.3233/BEN-2010-0297
IOS Press
Multitasking and Prospective Memory: Can
Virtual Reality be Useful for Diagnosis?
Frederic Banvillea,∗, Pierre Nolinb, Sophie Lalondeb, Mylene Henryb, Marie-Pier Deryband
Rene Villemureb
aUniversity of Quebec at Trois-Rivieres, Rehabilitation Center Le Bouclier, QC, Canada
bUniversity of Quebec at Trois-Rivieres, QC, Canada
1. Overview
Prospective memory (PM) is defined as the ability
to perform an intended action in the future [4]. It is
with this type of memory that one can observe the high-
est number of memory errors made within the context
of everyday life [6]. Furthermore, researchers have
demonstrated that prospective memory is extremely
sensitive to traumatic brain injury (TBI) [5]. In the
past few years, research in the field of PM has shown
how the frontal lobes are involved in the context of
multitasking.
Multitasking is defined by the ability to execute and
monitor a set of “goal-oriented” behaviours in order to
realize planned actions [3]. Shallice and Burgess [8]
have discussed the importance of multitasking as an
essential component of prospective memory.
During the last few years, neuropsychological tests
have been criticized, especially with regard to every-
day functioning. At present, neuropsychological tools
sometimes fail to detect subtle and complex deficits in
the goal-oriented behaviours in order to realise self-
planned actions [8].
We now seem to have at our disposal virtual reali-
ty (VR) to compensate for the different limits of tra-
ditional assessment. One of the major plusses of VR
is its capacity to bring the real world into a labora-
∗Corresponding author: Frederic Banville, Neuropsychologist,
P.O. Box 502, Station St-Jerome, St-Jerome, J7Z 5V2, Quebec, Cana-
da. Tel.: +1 450 275 4518; E-mail: fredericbanville@videotron.ca.
tory setting thus permitting the control of stimuli and
the recording of the patient’s answers and behaviours.
Overtime,someexperimentswhich haveused VRtech-
nology have demonstrated its ecological validity and
its capacity to detect planning or prospective memory
deficit [2,7,9].
The objective of the present study is to demonstrate
the capacity of VR to detect prospective memory prob-
lems.
2. Method
2.1. Participants
Thirty-one participants (8 women and 23 men) who
have sustained a TBI participated in this study. Seven
subjects have sustained a moderate TBI and twenty-
four a severe TBI. All subjects were evaluated both in
a VR condition and a traditional neuropsychological
condition. Thirty-one control subjects were matched
in gender, education and age with TBI participants.
The mean age for TBI participants was 27 years old
(SD =11 years); they had an average of 12 years of
education (SD =2,5 years). The mean age for control
subjects was 27 years (SD =11 years); they had an av-
erage of 12 years of education (SD =1,61). Statistical
analysis has not revealed any differences between the
groups in terms of age (F(1,60) =2.21, p=0,14) and
education (F(1,60) =2,15, p=0,15).
ISSN 0953-4180/10/$27.50 2010 – IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved
210 F. Banville et al. / Multitasking and Prospective Memory: Can Virtual Reality be Useful for Diagnosis?
2.2. Material
This study was conducted with a PC Laptop and an
eMagin z800 visor in order to immerse the participants
into virtual environments. The virtual environments
used to conduct this study were taken from the “Modi-
fiedMaxPayne Environments”developedbyBouchard
et al. [1]. The environments in question are the virtual
city (which is used in the learning phase) and two vir-
tual apartments (which are used in order to realize the
PM assessment).
2.3. Procedure
Three virtual prospective memory tasks are done
while visiting two apartments. The subject must: 1)
feed fish at 11:41, 2) turn off the fan when leaving the
bedroom of the larger apartment, and 3) take the lease
from the counter after visiting the smaller apartment.
Two traditional prospectivememory taskshave beenre-
alized; they were analogous to those found in the River-
mead Behavioural Memory Test (RBMT) which is fre-
quently used in prospective memory research. More
specifically, the participant has to: 1) ask the evaluator
to give him a business card and 2) ask the evaluator to
give back to him a personal object. Finally, the ongoing
task has consisted in visiting two apartments with the
aim of renting one. The participant was voice-recorded
during the visit and had to describe what he/she saw in
terms of his/her preference in living in one of the two
apartments.
2.4. Results
Three scores were taken from the VR condition: pre-
cision in the realization of prospective task; time taken
to make the visit; and the success (or not) of virtual
PM tasks. One score in fact, comes from the traditional
prospective memory evaluation: it is a measurement
of success (or not) in performing PM tasks. We used
MANOVA for our first statistical analysis. The analy-
sis of the principal effect has shown a significant group
difference(F(1,50)=8,79,p < 0,01) in the four depen-
dant variables. More specifically, the simple effects did
not show a significant group difference in the success
of PM tasks both in VR (F(1,50) =1,25, p > 0,05) or
traditional tasks (F(1,50) =2,73, p > 0,05). However,
and more interestingly, the TBI group was less precise
(F(1,50) =5,70, p < 0,05) and took significantly more
time to complete the task (F(1,50) =7,57, p < 0,01) in
comparison with the control group. Using the same de-
pendant variables, a discriminant analysis has correctly
classified 71% of the participants in the correct group
(TBI or control).
3. Discussion
The principal aim of this experiment was to demon-
strate the utility of VR technology in order to detect
prospective memory problems after traumatic brain in-
jury. The results here have demonstrated, as else-
where [9], that the realization of delayed intention
for both experimental and control groups was normal.
Nevertheless, the TBI participants’ executive dysfunc-
tions can be detected in the way they had difficulties in
managing well the interference and cognitive overload
generated by the multitasking condition. In fact, TBI
participants took more time to realize virtual prospec-
tive memory tasks; they made more errors in terms of
quality of realization; and they were less structured in
the task than control group participants.
These research results seem to suggest that in order
to obtain a good measurement of prospective memory,
one must include multitasking conditions and several
quantitative and qualitative measurements. This way,
we can detect subtle behaviours which indicate a mal-
functioning of cognitive management especially with
regard to the executive component in the realisation
of the intended action. This experiment, like previous
tests, is a testament to the usefulness of virtual reali-
ty, which can classify correctly the majority of partic-
ipants as TBI patients or control agents. Moreover, it
appears that virtual reality protocol can be used as a
complement with traditional neuropsychological tools
in order to assess PM after traumatic brain injury. This
is especially the case when we have to detect subtle
everyday problems in TBI patients. In the end, more
work is needed and more data collection is required
before we can come to a definite conclusion.
References
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