Virtual Reality Programs May Help You Find Out What It Feels Like to Have Alzheimer's

Some schools and care communities are turning to virtual reality (VR) technology to better train caregivers for people with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, reports the Chicago Tribune . Leaders of Chicago Methodist Senior Services want to train all employees with a program from Los Angeles-based Embodied Labs. The program involves multiple virtual characters as they go through various scenarios. One character is a math teacher in her 60s advancing through the stages of Alzheimer's. Workers wear headsets to explore the teacher's world, hear sounds as she would, and hear her thoughts. A camera on the headset also lets participants move the avatar's hands by moving their own. "You are there and you are observing this and you have a deep sense of feeling of what's happening," says Neelum Aggarwal with the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center. He advised Embodied Labs on the creation of the virtual teacher character and the scenarios she experiences. "We know when there's an emotional connection to something, that whole experience is enhanced and virtual reality seems to be able to do this," Aggarwal notes. He says Rush is trialing the Embodied Labs program with 60 medical, pharmacy, and nursing students. Their levels of empathy and bias, and beliefs about aging, will be measured before and after participating in the VR modules, and they will discuss their impressions together.