Study Says Virtual Reality Can Improve Quality of Life for People With Dementia

A British study published in Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems found virtual reality (VR) can improve the quality of life for people with dementia, reports CBS Boston . Eight participants with dementia wore VR headsets to visit one of five virtual settings, including a cathedral, a forest, a sandy beach, a rocky beach, and a rural environment. Over the course of 16 VR sessions, each participant's memory recall appeared to improve. The experiment also seemed to comfort the subjects and enhance their mood, while caregivers gained more knowledge about their lives. This, in turn, improved social interaction. The researchers suggested virtual environments could eventually be customized to individual users, featuring their current home or a favorite location.