Immediate anxiety-reducing effects of multisensory virtual reality reminiscence therapy in older adults with a wide range of cognitive functions: a pilot study using electrophysiological measures.
8 affiliations
- 1Department of Occupational Therapy, Morinomiya University of Medical Sciences, Osaka, Japan.
- 2Graduate School of Rehabilitation Science, Osaka Metropolitan University, Osaka, Japan.
- 3Department of Clinical Pharmacy Research and Education, The University of Osaka Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka, Japan.
- 4Social Welfare Corporation Misasagikai, Osaka, Japan.
- 5Graduate School of Engineering Science, The University of Osaka, Osaka, Japan.
- 6Department of Science and Engineering, Otemon Gakuin University, Osaka, Japan.
- 7Osaka Center for Cancer and Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, Osaka, Japan.
- 8Department of Psychiatry, The University of Osaka Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka, Japan.
Abstract
Introduction
Anxiety is a prevalent behavioral and psychological symptom of dementia (BPSD) in older adults with cognitive impairment, severely diminishing their quality of life. Although reminiscence therapy (RT) is a promising non-pharmacological intervention, objective neurophysiological methods to evaluate its immediate emotional impact remain unexplored. This pilot study proposed "Smart Reminiscence Therapy (SRT)" - a novel virtual reality (VR) system integrated with synchronized multisensory stimuli - and evaluated its immediate anxiety-reducing effects and the utility of electrophysiological measures.Methods
A single-session, single-arm pre-post exploratory design was adopted. Twenty older adults (aged 65 years or older) at a day service center, with Mini-Mental State Examination-Japanese (MMSE-J) scores of 11-30, participated. The intervention consisted of a 10-min SRT session featuring a 1960s Japanese townscape. The primary outcome was objective resting-state eye-closed frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) via a wearable EEG device, while subjective state anxiety via the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was evaluated as a secondary outcome.Results
After excluding three participants with excessive artifacts, 17 participants (mean age: 85.9 ± 5.9 years; mean MMSE-J: 23.8 ± 3.8, with 64.7% clustered in the MCI-to-mild-dementia range) were analyzed. Subjective STAI scores showed a non-significant decreasing trend with a moderate effect size (p = 0.088, r = 0.414). Conversely, the FAA index significantly increased post-intervention (p = 0.038, Cohen's d = 0.55). No significant correlation was found between changes in STAI and FAA (r = -0.15, p = 0.562).Conclusion
A single session of SRT was associated with an increase in FAA; however, the uncontrolled design precludes causal attribution to the intervention. The dissociation between subjective reports and neurophysiological changes suggests that FAA may complement self-reported measures by capturing aspects of acute emotional change that may be difficult to verbalize in people with cognitive impairment. The non-significant but moderate-sized reduction in STAI scores warrants confirmation in larger controlled studies.
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BibTeX
@article{ueno2026immediate,
title = {{Immediate anxiety-reducing effects of multisensory virtual reality reminiscence therapy in older adults with a wide range of cognitive functions: a pilot study using electrophysiological measures.}},
author = {Keita Ueno and Kazuyuki Niki and Hiroyuki Tanaka and Takeshi Okuda and Daisuke Iwai and Kosuke Sato and Yasuo Naito and Toshinori Ito and Ryouhei Ishii},
journal = {Frontiers in aging neuroscience},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fnagi.2026.1958403},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42923251},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Immediate anxiety-reducing effects of multisensory virtual reality reminiscence therapy in older adults with a wide range of cognitive functions: a pilot study using electrophysiological measures.
AU - Keita Ueno
AU - Kazuyuki Niki
AU - Hiroyuki Tanaka
AU - Takeshi Okuda
AU - Daisuke Iwai
AU - Kosuke Sato
AU - Yasuo Naito
AU - Toshinori Ito
AU - Ryouhei Ishii
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/08
JO - Frontiers in aging neuroscience
DO - 10.3389/fnagi.2026.1958403
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42923251
AB - Introduction Anxiety is a prevalent behavioral and psychological symptom of dementia (BPSD) in older adults with cognitive impairment, severely diminishing their quality of life. Although reminiscence therapy (RT) is a promising non-pharmacological intervention, objective neurophysiological methods to evaluate its immediate emotional impact remain unexplored. This pilot study proposed "Smart Reminiscence Therapy (SRT)" - a novel virtual reality (VR) system integrated with synchronized multisensory stimuli - and evaluated its immediate anxiety-reducing effects and the utility of electrophysiological measures.Methods A single-session, single-arm pre-post exploratory design was adopted. Twenty older adults (aged 65 years or older) at a day service center, with Mini-Mental State Examination-Japanese (MMSE-J) scores of 11-30, participated. The intervention consisted of a 10-min SRT session featuring a 1960s Japanese townscape. The primary outcome was objective resting-state eye-closed frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) via a wearable EEG device, while subjective state anxiety via the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was evaluated as a secondary outcome.Results After excluding three participants with excessive artifacts, 17 participants (mean age: 85.9 ± 5.9 years; mean MMSE-J: 23.8 ± 3.8, with 64.7% clustered in the MCI-to-mild-dementia range) were analyzed. Subjective STAI scores showed a non-significant decreasing trend with a moderate effect size (p = 0.088, r = 0.414). Conversely, the FAA index significantly increased post-intervention (p = 0.038, Cohen's d = 0.55). No significant correlation was found between changes in STAI and FAA (r = -0.15, p = 0.562).Conclusion A single session of SRT was associated with an increase in FAA; however, the uncontrolled design precludes causal attribution to the intervention. The dissociation between subjective reports and neurophysiological changes suggests that FAA may complement self-reported measures by capturing aspects of acute emotional change that may be difficult to verbalize in people with cognitive impairment. The non-significant but moderate-sized reduction in STAI scores warrants confirmation in larger controlled studies.
SN - 1663-4365
ER -