A fully immersive gamified virtual reality assessment of functional cognition

A fully immersive gamified virtual reality assessment of functional cognition | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article A fully immersive gamified virtual reality assessment of functional cognition Zhao Liu, Daniele Soria, Sukhi Shergill, Chee Siang Ang This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7251163/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Neurodegenerative diseases have become a major challenge to healthcare systems worldwide, and scalable, cost-effective screening tools are needed to manage them with minimal resource expenditure. In this feasibility study, we developed and evaluated vKitchen, a fully immersive, gamified virtual reality (VR) cognitive assessment system designed to simulate real-life kitchen tasks through a sushi- making simulation. Twenty-five healthy young adults (18–45 years) completed the vKitchen task in three different environments: a VR environment using a head-mounted display, a traditional 2D tablet interface, and a real kitchen envi- ronment. Key performance indicators were recorded, including task completion times, movement success rates and overall performance scores, and the results were compared across the three conditions. In addition, participants completed a Cognitron test to explore the correlation between task performance and standard cognitive measures. Our analysis showed that there were no significant differences in movement success rates or performance scores between the VR, 2D and real kitchen environ- ments, suggesting that the VR simulation can realistically reproduce real-life task performance. Notably, completion times differed: tasks were completed fastest in the 2D environment, while VR performance was closer to real-life results. Regression analyses showed that familiarity with technology and cooking largely determined task completion. However, the study also identified limitations, such as the small and relatively young participant sample, irregular data distributions and challenges inherent to VR simulations (e.g. reduced multisensory feedback and insufficient matching of certain task steps to real actions). These findings suggest that vKitchen has the potential to become an effective and scalable screening tool for neurodegenerative diseases, providing a user-friendly and cost-effective alternative to traditional cognitive assessments. Future research should focus on enhancing multisensory integration, expanding the participant demographics, and incorporating more complex cognitive tasks to further validate and refine this innovative approach. Neurodegenerative Diseases Virtual Reality Kitchen Task Cognitive assessment Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7251163","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":535872008,"identity":"d6c17da2-d324-42cd-85e6-09d5428b4184","order_by":0,"name":"Zhao 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assessment","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7251163/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7251163/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eNeurodegenerative diseases have become a major challenge to healthcare systems worldwide, and scalable, cost-effective screening tools are needed to manage them with minimal resource expenditure. In this feasibility study, we developed and evaluated vKitchen, a fully immersive, gamified virtual reality (VR) cognitive assessment system designed to simulate real-life kitchen tasks through a sushi- making simulation. Twenty-five healthy young adults (18–45 years) completed the vKitchen task in three different environments: a VR environment using a head-mounted display, a traditional 2D tablet interface, and a real kitchen envi- ronment. Key performance indicators were recorded, including task completion times, movement success rates and overall performance scores, and the results were compared across the three conditions. In addition, participants completed a Cognitron test to explore the correlation between task performance and standard cognitive measures.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOur analysis showed that there were no significant differences in movement success rates or performance scores between the VR, 2D and real kitchen environ- ments, suggesting that the VR simulation can realistically reproduce real-life task performance. Notably, completion times differed: tasks were completed fastest in the 2D environment, while VR performance was closer to real-life results.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRegression analyses showed that familiarity with technology and cooking largely determined task completion. However, the study also identified limitations, such as the small and relatively young participant sample, irregular data distributions and challenges inherent to VR simulations (e.g. reduced multisensory feedback and insufficient matching of certain task steps to real actions).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese findings suggest that vKitchen has the potential to become an effective and scalable screening tool for neurodegenerative diseases, providing a user-friendly and cost-effective alternative to traditional cognitive assessments. Future research should focus on enhancing multisensory integration, expanding the participant demographics, and incorporating more complex cognitive tasks to further validate and refine this innovative approach.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"A fully immersive gamified virtual reality assessment of functional cognition","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-10-31 15:17:27","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7251163/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"f3a07f3b-5ccd-4695-aabc-4cd9a806f769","owner":[],"postedDate":"October 31st, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-04-02T18:39:19+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-10-31 15:17:27","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7251163","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7251163","identity":"rs-7251163","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}