Experimental Procedure for Evaluation of Visuospatial Cognitive Functions Training in Virtual Reality

In recent years, visuospatial cognitive functions, which play a crucial role in human cognition, have sparked interest among psychologists and neuroscientists, focusing on assessment, training and restoration of these functions. Virtual reality, recognized as a modern technology, addressing the real-life aspects of visuospatial processing, provides an immersive environment that can be used for stimulation of cognitive functions and its effects that can be measured afterwards. In this paper, we describe an experimental design that involves cognitive testing and targeted, cognitively-oriented, stimulation in an immersive 3D virtual environment, rendered by a unique CAVE system. We focus primarily on a game, designed and developed to serve as the virtual environment. We also describe the experimental procedure that includes the measurement of an electrophysiological neural correlate of spatial working memory capacity – contralateral delay activity.

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