bWell: Improving cognitive health through virtual reality

A man wearing a virtual reality headset and holding controllers, while a researcher evaluates his responses on paper with a TV screen in the background showing a simulation of a 3D animated virtual reality video game resembling whack-a-mole.

The virtual reality (VR) cognitive care platform, bWell, is designed to enhance patient care.

This platform's immersive, life-like environments can be personalized to diverse needs, such as managing depression, improving cognitive skills in older adults and promoting overall wellness.

bWell's multisensory cognitive exercises are designed to evoke genuine and natural responses from individuals in a safe and controlled environment, allowing for a better understanding of how people respond to real-life challenges.

Created by researchers from our Medical Devices Research Centre, bWell is also collecting neural and physiological data for clinical, high-performance training and wellness activities, for example, data related to sleep management, stress, fatigue, cognitive load, and discovery of novel digital brain signatures.

About the bWell platform

bWell 1.0: a VR cognitive care platform

Our digital therapeutics platform, bWell 1.0, provides VR-based cognitive assessment and rehabilitation. Leveraging the immersive nature of VR, bWell offers practical cognitive exercises in realistic environments that are relevant to daily life. This makes the platform both enjoyable and engaging for users and a powerful tool for therapists treating cognitive disorders.

Using industry standards and proven methods for cognitive care, bWell was developed through a rigorous co-design process involving international experts, clinicians, and individuals with lived experience to ensure its validity and clinical applicability in depression, executive functioning in children, addictions and aging.

bWell 2.0: A tool to study brain health and wellness

Building on the success of the original platform, bWell 2.0 takes cognitive care to the next level by integrating cognitive assessments, digital health tracking and biological data analysis to deliver a more comprehensive view of individual health. Combining data from these different dimensions helps researchers better understand how behaviour, thinking and biology interact to shape human health.

Multimodal data drawn from bWell 2.0 contributes to a better understanding of complex diseases like brain disorders, mental health conditions and stress-related diseases, potentially leading to new treatment options. Additionally, leveraging AI techniques, the multi-modal data has also led to applications beyond the clinic, including wellness and high-performance training.

Key features

  • Evidence-based: Integrates proven principles of cognitive assessment and rehabilitation, following industry standard best practices and developed through a rigorous co-design process involving subject experts
  • Customizable: Enables exercises to be tailored to individual needs and adaptable to diverse linguistic and cultural contexts
  • User-friendly: Intuitive, enjoyable and engaging
  • Quantifiable: Automatically logs rich, complex data to monitor and track progress
  • Flexible: Provides fully immersive, semi-immersive or non-immersive experiences
  • Accessible: Available on VR headsets, mobile phones and computers

Additional features of bWell 2.0

  • Multimodal and holistic assessment: Enables detailed and nuanced understanding of the interplay between the body and mind
  • Integrated data analysis: Uses machine learning and data analytics to identify patterns and predict outcomes from multimodal data, leveraging VR stimuli to uncover new relationships between biomarkers and physiological responses

Contact us

Priyum Koonjul

Director, Business Development

Email: Priyum.Koonjul@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca

Exercises

Each of the bWell platform's 8 customizable exercises targets a specific cognitive skill, allowing therapists to select the most appropriate ones based on a patient's needs.

Focus and attention

3D animation of a virtual reality setting of a grassy landscape with large trees, scattered rocks, and some bushes.

Participants find an egg hidden in immersive real-world environments, then keep a steady watch on it for a specific amount of time to make it hatch.

Visual memory

Animation of a 3D animated virtual reality video game with a wooden stage, a red curtain backdrop, and a table with various object shapes. Two hands hover over a puzzle to match the shapes.

Participants study a sequence of shapes. After the shapes disappear from view, participants select them from a pool of objects and try to place the shapes in the correct order.

Relaxation

Animation of a mountainous iceberg floating on ocean water and a yellow, pink and orange sunset in the background.

Participants freely explore a relaxing environment in nature, while a visual cue helps guide deep, slow breaths to promote relaxation.

Self-control and inhibition

3D animated virtual reality video game resembling a whack-a-mole game. A wooden board has four cylindrical pegs with different colors (green and blue on top) and two red hammers in the bottom corners.

Using a hammer that changes colour, participants hit the cylinders that are the same colour as the hammer as they pop out of a table. The goal is to hit the correct cylinders as quickly as possible.

Multitasking

3D animated virtual reality video game. In the foreplan is an iPad with images of simulated graphs and a conical flask resembling instructions. In the background is a hand pouring a neon blue liquid out of a conical flask into a neon pink bowl.

Participants follow instructions for pouring recipe ingredients into a mixing bowl in a specific order. The catch? They must complete the specific steps for 2 different recipes at the same time.

Self-regulation (delay aversion)

3D animation of a grassy landscape with scattered flowers and butterflies in a virtual reality setting.

Participants collect points by catching butterflies with their net. Some are easy and others are harder to catch, but patience, discipline and a steady hand is always required.

Sustained attention

3D animation of a grassy landscape and forest in a virtual reality setting.

While taking a stroll in a beautiful landscape, participants simply click whenever a new object appears in their field of vision…unless the object is a green diamond.

An animated grid of orange and blue U-shaped figures lined up for a puzzle game in a virtual reality setting.

With a grid of orange and blue U shapes, participants must find only the blue U shapes, pointing up or down. They then respond by clicking the corresponding direction on the controller.

Facilities

The Medical Devices Research Centre's immersive VR lab in Boucherville, Quebec, is a state-of-the-art multidisciplinary facility. It is dedicated to using immersive virtual environments to investigate the complex connections between the brain, body and behaviour. The lab is equipped with advanced technology, physiological monitoring systems and neuroimaging tools.

Immersive VR systems

  • High-resolution VR headsets that provide immersive visual and auditory experiences

Physiological monitoring

  • Heart rate monitors to measure variability in heart rate and cardiovascular responses
  • Electromyography (EMG) to measure emotions and facial expressions

VR treadmill

  • Facilitates walking or running at various speeds in place, simulating physical stress in a controlled, dynamic digital environment for enhanced experiences

Behavioral analysis tool

  • Integrated eye-tracking systems within VR headsets to monitor gaze patterns and visual attention

Neuroimaging and brain monitoring

  • Portable electroencephalography (EEG) systems ranging from low-density (8-channel) to high-density (64-channel) research grade to monitor brain activity and neural responses during VR experiences
  • Non-invasive functional near-infrared spectroscopy (FNIRS) imaging technology to measure brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow

Development with domain experts

A substantial body of work has gone into the development of bWell, co-designed with the Medical Devices' Cognitive Care Network, a collaborative initiative focused on enhancing cognitive health through advanced research, technology and innovative solutions. Since 2019, our team has worked collaboratively with experts adhering to best practices in VR therapy to customize the bWell platform for use in specific therapeutic areas.

Discover the NRC difference

Our multidisciplinary medical devices team, with diverse backgrounds in biomedical engineering, neuroscience and software development, is dedicated to delivering cutting-edge solutions aimed at transforming the field of cognitive care. Using the bWell platform and working with a network of experts across Canada and Japan, our team is exploring how personalized VR exercises can help improve cognitive abilities.

With our bWell platform, you'll gain access to an evidence-based, user-friendly and engaging tool that enhances cognitive health through advanced research and innovative solutions. You will also benefit from our state-of-the-art facilities equipped with the latest technology and specialized equipment to help enhance medical devices, improve patient outcomes and drive innovation in cognitive health.

Contact us to learn more about how we can adapt the bWell platform to meet your needs.

Our experts

Budhachandra Khundrakpam
Research Officer, Medical Devices

Catherine Proulx
Senior Research Officer, Medical Devices

Elicia Kohlenberg
Technical Officer, Medical Devices

 

Mark Hewko
Research Officer, Medical Devices

Nushi Choudhury
Senior Research Officer, Medical Devices

Vincent Gagnon Shaigetz
Research Officer, Medical Devices

Two women, one in a lab coat and one in casual clothes, are facing each other wearing virtual reality headsets and holding controllers, with a TV screen in the background showing a simulation of the person in the lab coat.

Using virtual reality for treatment of depression

Our VR digital therapeutic bWell is being used to improve how British Columbians with depression function in the workplace.

A boy wearing a virtual reality headset points upwards at something in front of him

VR: A game changer for neurodevelopmental treatments

Our VR platform bWell is helping develop performance indicators of healthy children and those with ADHD.

Publications

Side view close-up of a man sitting in a laboratory setting, wearing a virtual reality headset and a head covering that has multiple wires coming from it. A man wearing a head covering that has multiple wires coming from it and safety glasses sits in a lab while a woman, also wearing safety glasses and holding a clipboard, monitors him. Behind them is a monitor displaying data. A man wearing a head covering that has multiple wires coming from it and safety glasses sits in a lab beside a monitor displaying data. A man wearing a virtual reality headset and holding controllers is secured to a treadmill. A large screen in front of him displays a VR environment with trees and nature.

From: National Research Council Canada

 
 
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