ANALYSIS OF THE PATTERN OF CORTICAL ACTIVATION AND COHERENCE
IN YOUNG AND ELDERLY INDIVIDUALS SUBMITTED TO EXPERIMENT WITH VIRTUAL
REALITY.
Virtual reality exposure therapy, EEG, Physiotherapy
INTRODUCTION: Population aging is a global phenomenon, and
Brazil is suffering from the aging of its population, which brings
several social and public health changes. During the aging process,
occurs physiological changes that lead a decrease in brain processing
speed. In recent years, virtual reality (VR) having been increasingly
applied in the rehabilitation centers, so know the influence of RV in
brain activity in these populations is necessary. Within this context,
Electroencephalography it is considered as one of the main ways to
capture brain activity. Recently, several commercial use equipment
were developed to be used by ordinary users, such as EPOC, Emotiv,
which has demonstrated excellent results when compared to professional
EEG, especially in its low cost and good accuracy to acquire signals.
Through acquiring of brain activity, we can study it in different
ways, one is the study of coherence between pairs of electrodes,
allowing to analyze the relationship of different brain areas and how
they exchange information. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate
the influence of immediate exposure to a balance training in a virtual
environment on the brain activity of the frontal lobes of young adults
and the elderly, measured through EPOC® from Emotiv Company.
METHODOLOGY: Comparative study involving 20 individuals divided in two
groups: young (GJ) and elderly (GI). After going through an evaluation
of the general condition, the Functional Ambulatory Category (FAC) and
cognitive status (MMSE), the participants played for 4 minutes, the
game penguin slide of the Nintendo Wii balance category, whose effects
on cortical activity was observed by collecting held by EPOC.
PRELIMINARY RESULTS: GJ has lower coherence values in the alpha band
compared to GI. The GI has a domain of the left hemisphere, while the
GI appear to have a hemispheric activation domain alter resonance. In
high beta, the youth group had higher coherence values when compared
to the elderly. If there is still a beta activation predominance of
the left hemisphere for GJ while dominance of the right hemisphere for
GJ in beta.