Preliminary study on the feasibility of virtual reality-based cognitive training on patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that causes a decline in cognitive functions, considerably affecting a patient's life. Recently, virtual reality (VR) technology has emerged as a new tool used in the cognitive training of patients with AD. This study aimed to investigate the safety, feasibility, and clinical efficacy of VR-based cognitive training for patients with mild to moderate AD. Thirteen participants diagnosed with mild to moderate AD underwent VR training sessions by using the MentiTree software. Each session was conducted for 30 min twice a week for 9 weeks (total of 540 min). Cognitive functions were assessed before and after the intervention. Although 1 of the 13 participants experienced adverse effects, the 9-week cognitive training was well tolerated and had a high feasibility of 93%±24.65%. A tendency toward improvement was observed in the visual recognition memory of the participants (p = 0.034), but other domains did not significantly change. VR-based cognitive training is safely accepted by patients with mild to moderate AD. The potential of VR in AD treatment should be further explored using a randomized control group.