Numerosity estimation of virtual humans as a digital-robotic marker for hallucinations in Parkinson’s disease
Abstract Hallucinations are frequent non-motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease (PD) associated with dementia and higher mortality. Despite their high clinical relevance, current assessments of hallucinations are based on verbal self-reports and interviews that are limited by important biases. Here,...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2024-03-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-45912-w |
| _version_ | 1797259130487963648 |
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| author | Louis Albert Jevita Potheegadoo Bruno Herbelin Fosco Bernasconi Olaf Blanke |
| author_facet | Louis Albert Jevita Potheegadoo Bruno Herbelin Fosco Bernasconi Olaf Blanke |
| author_sort | Louis Albert |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Hallucinations are frequent non-motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease (PD) associated with dementia and higher mortality. Despite their high clinical relevance, current assessments of hallucinations are based on verbal self-reports and interviews that are limited by important biases. Here, we used virtual reality (VR), robotics, and digital online technology to quantify presence hallucination (vivid sensations that another person is nearby when no one is actually present and can neither be seen nor heard) in laboratory and home-based settings. We establish that elevated numerosity estimation of virtual human agents in VR is a digital marker for experimentally induced presence hallucinations in healthy participants, as confirmed across several control conditions and analyses. We translated the digital marker (numerosity estimation) to an online procedure that 170 PD patients carried out remotely at their homes, revealing that PD patients with disease-related presence hallucinations (but not control PD patients) showed higher numerosity estimation. Numerosity estimation enables quantitative monitoring of hallucinations, is an easy-to-use unobtrusive online method, reaching people far away from medical centers, translating neuroscientific findings using robotics and VR, to patients’ homes without specific equipment or trained staff. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T23:04:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2944841c74a349d88ec6b4ff5c0cc182 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T23:04:32Z |
| publishDate | 2024-03-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj.art-2944841c74a349d88ec6b4ff5c0cc1822024-03-17T12:31:01ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232024-03-0115111610.1038/s41467-024-45912-wNumerosity estimation of virtual humans as a digital-robotic marker for hallucinations in Parkinson’s diseaseLouis Albert0Jevita Potheegadoo1Bruno Herbelin2Fosco Bernasconi3Olaf Blanke4Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL)Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL)Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL)Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL)Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL)Abstract Hallucinations are frequent non-motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease (PD) associated with dementia and higher mortality. Despite their high clinical relevance, current assessments of hallucinations are based on verbal self-reports and interviews that are limited by important biases. Here, we used virtual reality (VR), robotics, and digital online technology to quantify presence hallucination (vivid sensations that another person is nearby when no one is actually present and can neither be seen nor heard) in laboratory and home-based settings. We establish that elevated numerosity estimation of virtual human agents in VR is a digital marker for experimentally induced presence hallucinations in healthy participants, as confirmed across several control conditions and analyses. We translated the digital marker (numerosity estimation) to an online procedure that 170 PD patients carried out remotely at their homes, revealing that PD patients with disease-related presence hallucinations (but not control PD patients) showed higher numerosity estimation. Numerosity estimation enables quantitative monitoring of hallucinations, is an easy-to-use unobtrusive online method, reaching people far away from medical centers, translating neuroscientific findings using robotics and VR, to patients’ homes without specific equipment or trained staff.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-45912-w |
| spellingShingle | Louis Albert Jevita Potheegadoo Bruno Herbelin Fosco Bernasconi Olaf Blanke Numerosity estimation of virtual humans as a digital-robotic marker for hallucinations in Parkinson’s disease Nature Communications |
| title | Numerosity estimation of virtual humans as a digital-robotic marker for hallucinations in Parkinson’s disease |
| title_full | Numerosity estimation of virtual humans as a digital-robotic marker for hallucinations in Parkinson’s disease |
| title_fullStr | Numerosity estimation of virtual humans as a digital-robotic marker for hallucinations in Parkinson’s disease |
| title_full_unstemmed | Numerosity estimation of virtual humans as a digital-robotic marker for hallucinations in Parkinson’s disease |
| title_short | Numerosity estimation of virtual humans as a digital-robotic marker for hallucinations in Parkinson’s disease |
| title_sort | numerosity estimation of virtual humans as a digital robotic marker for hallucinations in parkinson s disease |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-45912-w |
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