Cortical Correlates of Spatial Navigation Skills in an Immersive Virtual Reality Environment

Not Applicable

Recruiting

• Conditions: Cerebral Palsy (CP)

• Registration Number: NCT06710301
• Lead Sponsor: IRCCS Eugenio Medea

Brief Summary

The goal of this study is to investigate the neural mechanisms that undergoes spatial navigation skills in children/adolescents aged between 8 and 17 years. These skills play an important role in daily life, as they allow us to orient ourselves in familiar and unfamiliar environments, locate objects, interact with them and memorize their position. Navigation abilities vary widely between individuals, change with age and might be affected by diseases, such as the cerebral palsy (CP). Previous studies have, in fact, demonstrated differences in the learning and adaptation methods of spatial navigation skills in children affected by CP compared to typically developing (TD) peers. Through the use of the electroencephalogram (EEG) we want to shed light on the mechanisms that govern this ability with the aim of:

1. better characterize spatial navigation skills in children/adolescents, both TD and affected by CP;

2. investigate the origin of the differences found between the spatial navigation skills of TD children and those affected by CP, improving knowledge of the pathology and thus allowing, in the future, to identify more adequate rehabilitation interventions.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Status Verified: 2024-11
• Study Start: 2024-11-14
• Study First Submitted: 2024-11-25
• Study First Submitted QC: 2024-11-26
• Last Update Submitted: 2024-11-26
• Study First Posted: 2024-11-29
• Last Update Posted: 2024-11-29
• Primary Completion: 2026-09-30
• Study Completion: 2026-12-31

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 70

Inclusion Criteria

• typically developing subjects aged between 8 and 17 years;
• subjects with CP aged between 8 and 17 years;

Exclusion Criteria

• subjects aged under 8 or over 17 years;
• subjects with epileptic problems;
• subjects with poor head control;
• subjects with visual problems that can not be corrected with prescription lens;

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: SINGLE_GROUP

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Power Spectral Density (PSD)	Once	Differences in power values between TD and CP subjects
Navigation performance	Once	Navigation performance based on the following parameters: number of routes visited in each trial; total length of the path for each trial; error between distance traveled and ideal distance for each trial (identified as the minimum distance to reach the treasure from the starting point); angle of rotation of the viewer in each trial; duration of each trial.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

IRCCS Scientific Institute E. Medea; 🇮🇹 Conegliano, TV, Italy