The Kaohsiung Medical University Neuroscience Research Center on Monday introduced a new dementia therapy that uses virtual reality (VR) to recreate patients’ living experiences and reactivate long-term memories, to help lower their aggression levels.
At the premiere of a short film about Alzheimer’s disease, the most common type of dementia, the center unveiled the therapy, dubbed “the therapy of nostalgia,” as part of an effort to raise public awareness about the affliction.
In Taiwan, one in 12 people aged 65 or older suffers from dementia, the center said, adding that effective treatment requires pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies.
Photo: Fang Chih-hsien, Taipei Times
The animated film — produced by a team headed by Andrew Wang (王惠鈞), a professor at Academia Sinica, and overseen by the center — uses simple language and illustrations to explain complex scientific concepts without overburdening its audience, the center said.
Explaining the new therapy, center director Yang Yuan-han (楊淵韓) said that many old men enjoy talking about their military experiences.
For them, revisiting the past through immersion in VR environments has therapeutic effects, stabilizes their mood and reduces dementia-related aggression, Yang added.
If the therapy can make use of 5G technology, production costs would be lower and access for patients would be easier, Yang said.
The standard version of the therapy features collective memories or interests shared by many older people, Yang said, adding that this would take into account the typical environments in which they grew up.
However, the VR environments can be customized and be based upon a patient’s background, he said, adding that this would usually take months of work, including visits to a patient’s home.
University president Jong Yuh-jyh (鐘育志) said that the therapy is an achievement of interdisciplinary collaboration.
The combination pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies, including the new therapy, can stimulate patients’ cognitive functions, delay the progression of the disease and improve the quality of care, Jong said.
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
TAIWAN ADVOCATES: The resolution, which called for the recognition of Taiwan as a country and normalized relations, was supported by 22 Republican representatives Two US representatives on Thursday reintroduced a resolution calling for the US to end its “one China” policy, resume formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan and negotiate a bilateral Taiwan-US free trade agreement. Republican US representatives Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania’s 10th District were backed by 22 Republican members of the US House of Representatives. The two congressmen first introduced the resolution together in 2021. The resolution called on US President Donald Trump to “abandon the antiquated ‘one China’ policy in favor of a policy that recognizes the objective reality that Taiwan is an independent country, not
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)