Documentation:23-1002 Behavioural Biomarker

Emerging Media Lab
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Introduction

Background

Memory-based tests are extremely common in assessing neurodegenerative decline due to Alzheimer's or other dementias. Navigational abilities and spacial memory are also primarily affected in such cases, yet they are often overlooked in memory testing.

The Emerging Media Lab at UBC is collaborating with the Neural Circuits for Computation, Cognition and Control (NC4) Laboratory to develop a novel approach to assess cognitive decline on the individual's "cognitive map" using Virtual Reality (VR).

This project is a continuation of the Minimum Viable Project (MVP) of the VR task, developed by the principal investigator Dr. Manu Madhav's team.

"Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) causes progressive neurodegeneration, i.e. the death of neurons and their connections in the brain. If AD is diagnosed early, drugs and lifestyle changes can be used to slow down its progress. In its early stages, AD affects brain regions that are responsible for navigation and planning. The difference in our ability to remember the location of landmarks around us with respect to us and with respect to each other may be affected differently in early AD compared to normal aging. Our virtual reality task is designed to be able to quantify these differences using relatively few trials." (Dr. Manu Madhav, Principal Investigator)

Objective

The development of this VR tool is being continued at EML, with a specific focus on improving the usability and accessibility of the task. This project aims to supplement the original experience by streamlining the back-end operations and data collection methods, and improving the accessibility and intuitiveness of the program within user interface. This includes key goals such as creating a tutorial level, and implementing a dynamic path generation algorithm that will provide researchers with greater flexibility and expansion potential.

Through these goals for improvement, it is hoped that the use of VR in experimental research as an assessment tool will allow researchers to discover a different angle of Alzheimer's disease and provide opportunities for greater understanding.

Format and Versioning

Behavioural Biomarker (MVP)

Behavioural Biomarker is a VR experience developed on Unity.

Behavioural Biomarker (EML Prototype)

This project is built on Unity 2021.3.4f1.

Primary Features

The experience will consist of two stages:

1. Tutorial level: a tutorial level that guides users through VR controls, and a practiced, pre-made maze to allow users to familiarise themselves with the task, and negate the effect of the users improving at the task throughout the study as they get used to it.
2. The main task: a multi-level task wherein users must go through a pathway with various turns and of various lengths. Simultaneously, they will be asked to observe the environment and to remember the positions of certain landmarks as they traverse through the maze. At the end of the path, the landmarks will be removed, and users will be asked to point out the positions of the landmarks as they remember them. This task can be repeated as required, with the ability for the researchers to customise the difficulty of the task, and the number of trials that occur.

Design Methods

• User personas
• User flow
• User Interface Wireframes (Figma)
• Implementation of UI into Unity
• Prefab creation for rooms and corridors

Development

Github Branches

Our repository can be found here: https://github.com/ubceml/23-1002-Biomarker.git

Please refer to the table below for a description of all the branches in the repository.

Active Branches

Branch Name	Description
main	The original project, after deletion of extra assets
devRefactor	Refactoring of reward state functions, and trigger point optimisation

Stale Branches

Branch	Purpose	Last Modified Date	Modified By	Build/Demo Ready?

First Time Setup + General Usage

As the title suggests

User Manual

As the title suggests

Challenges

As the title suggests

Future Plans

As the title suggests

Poster

As the title suggests

Team Members

Principal Investigator

Dr. Manu Madhav

Assistant Professor

School of Biomedical Engineering

University of British Columbia

Current Team

Mariane Olivan, Project Lead, UI/UX Designer (September 2023-Present)

Work Learn at the Emerging Media Lab at UBC

Undergraduate in Bachelor of Science in Cognitive Systems

University of British Columbia

Eric Leung, Developer (September 2023-Present)

Work Learn at the Emerging Media Lab at UBC

University of British Columbia

FAQ

As the title suggests