For three days a week, Wayne Garcia has been taking part in a nontraditional exercise. He starts by putting on virtual reality (VR) equipment on his head. He then gets on a specially designed exercise bicycle and starts riding it. Faster and faster he goes.
Garcia is taking part in a study at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine. Researchers want to see if just a small amount of VR can help prevent memory loss as people grow older. Garcia says he remembers how his parents and grandparents all suffered from dementia. “It’s very scary that one day that could be me.”
Judy Pa is part of the team of researchers leading the study. She says the actual definition of “dementia is when a person is no longer able to take care of themselves, things like paying the bills, driving, cooking for themselves, dressing themselves.”
She added that the break down and death of cells in the nervous system take 10 to 20 years. Pa also said that unlike usual games, VR provides a first-person, three-dimensional experience that is important to memory training. “Our goal is to prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, which have no effective treatments yet. We hope that we will get there eventually, but the research that we do in my laboratory at USC is really surrounding prevention.”
The VR study exercises the subjects’ body and brain at the same time, testing the memory and decision-making part of their brain. Subjects have to ride the exercise bike and keep their heart rate up. In the VR experience, they are trying to learn and remember directions while collecting food items, and then feeding the food to some animals.
本时文内容由奇速英语国际教育研究院原创编写，未经书面授权，禁止复制和任何商业用途，版权所有，侵权必究！（作者投稿及时文阅读定制请联系微信：400-1000-028）
13980503458
13980503458
admin@qisuen.cn
