The REAsmash serious game for the post-stroke diagnosis of distractor inhibition: contrast between immersive and non-immersive virtual reality test versions.
Gregorio Sorrentino, Khawla Ajana, Gauthier Everard and 3 others
PMID 40047653WHAT IT FOUND
Post-stroke participants were slower than healthy controls on a serious game testing distractor inhibition.
Immersive VR caused slower responses than non-immersive screens. However, the pattern of errors remained consistent across both VR types and groups, suggesting the test measures the same cognitive skill regardless of the device used.
Key findings
01Post-stroke participants were significantly slower than healthy controls on the response time measure.
02Responses were significantly slower in immersive VR compared to non-immersive VR.
03The diagnostic pattern of distractor inhibition (the FIT effect) was consistent across both VR types and both participant groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample size was small (15 per group), limiting the generalizability of the findings. The post-stroke group included individuals in both sub-acute and chronic phases (1 to 132 months post-stroke) without separate analysis, which may mask phase-specific differences. The immersive VR setup lacked haptic and force feedback, which may have artificially increased the motor demand and slowed responses compared to the touch screen. Gender distribution was not balanced between groups (14 males in the post-stroke group vs. 7 males in the control group), though the authors argue this was unlikely to affect the specific cognitive task. The study did not validate the tool against existing clinical standards, only comparing its internal consistency across devices.
Declared interests
The authors certify that there is no conflict of interest with any financial organization regarding the material discussed in the manuscript.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the slower response times in immersive VR as a worsening of cognitive impairment. The study shows that immersion itself adds cognitive and motor load, slowing everyone down, but the pattern of errors (the diagnostic signal) remains the same as on the simpler non-immersive screen.