Immersive Music Therapy for Elderly Patients

Abstract

The preliminary results of immersive virtual reality music therapy experiences are presented, carried out with people between ages of 72 and 96, residents of a nursing home, who suffer from mild mental health problems, potential dementia, moderate cognitive disorders, depressive symptoms, or severe dependency. The experiences are carried out in 15-minute sessions, streaming 180° and 360° music videos of genres that the elderly like, recorded for this purpose and performed by musical groups that collaborate voluntarily. The design of the developed application (the web interface, the application logic and the HMD player) is simple so that it is easy to use during music therapy sessions. Preliminary results show that the elderly experience similar levels of sense of presence as reported by other studies in younger population (< 55), and only 19% of them suffer from simulator sickness. This validates the usage of immersive media for music therapy in elderly patients.