Home › Research › Mild cognitive impairment
Investigating the Usability, Feasibility, and Effect of a Virtual Reality Cognitive Training System on Brain Cancer Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Quasi-Experimental (Single-Arm) Pilot Study
Faiola, A.; Villano, J. L.; Soroya, S. H.. medRxiv (preprint), 2026-08-24
Topic: Risk, prevention and care in population studies
The feasibility criteria of >80% was met. All SUS and NASA scores were in the higher index, suggesting a high degree of usability, with low workload demand. For effect, the COWA findings showed a significant improvement (41.38%), with a paired sample T-Test confirming that the participants COWA scores improved significantly from pre- to post-intervention (p = 0.03), indicating enhanced verbal fluency and executive functioning after intervention. HVLT (combined) showed improvements of 18.75% for Form A and 11.32% for Form B, which also showed a significant improvement (p = .04) in the retention discrimination index from pre- to post-test. The TM-A/B test showed an improvement (25.97%), suggesting that the participants spent less time completing both parts A and B, but was not statistically significant. (4) This study fulfilled our aim to demonstrate modest to significant cognitive improvement using VR-CRT with brain cancer patients with MCI. Despite the small sample size, we believe the use of virtual reality will lead to important advances for patients with MCI, particularly the frontal lobe brain region, expressed in executive function.
Key findings
- The feasibility criteria of >80% was met.
- All SUS and NASA scores were in the higher index, suggesting a high degree of usability, with low workload demand.
- For effect, the COWA findings showed a significant improvement (41.38%), with a paired sample T-Test confirming that the participants COWA scores improved significantly from pre- to post-intervention (p = 0.03), indicating enhanced verbal fluency and executive functioning after intervention.
- HVLT (combined) showed improvements of 18.75% for Form A and 11.32% for Form B, which also showed a significant improvement (p = .04) in the retention discrimination index from pre- to post-test.
- The TM-A/B test showed an improvement (25.97%), suggesting that the participants spent less time completing both parts A and B, but was not statistically significant.
Why it matters
In this small single-arm pilot in brain cancer patients with mild cognitive impairment, virtual reality cognitive training met feasibility criteria and some cognitive test scores improved significantly, while the TM-A/B improvement was not statistically significant. The small sample size and single-arm design mean these preliminary results cannot show that this training treats or prevents Alzheimer's disease.
Study details
- Effect size41.38%; 18.75%; 11.32%
- Evidence strengthHigh
How this study scored 16/100
Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed. It scored 26 on the same rubric, but non-peer-reviewed sources are capped at 16, so it shows as 16. Scored zero for study design, sample size, studied in people and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it. We have no data on impact for its field and year, so that was left out: it earned 24 of the 94 points we could judge it on, which is 26 out of 100.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 2 / 10 | Tier 4 — not a peer-reviewed journal (medRxiv (preprint)) |
| Journal's citation record | 0 / 4 | Not a journal article, so the journal's record does not count |
| Study design | 0 / 12 | No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Strength of evidence | 5 / 5 | Rated “high” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 4 / 10 | Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed. Hosted on a preprint server. |
| How recent | 5 / 5 | 2026 — within 1 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 0 / 4 | Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Effect reported | 2 / 3 | Effect reported as a number, without an interval or test |
| Studied in people | 0 / 3 | Not stated whether this was studied in people — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | 0 / 7 | Cited 0 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10) |
| Citations per year | 0 / 5 | 0.0 citations a year over 2 year(s) since 2026 |
| Impact for its field and year | — / 6 | No field-weighted citation impact (OpenAlex has none yet) — left out of this score |
| Cited by studies here | 0 / 6 | No other study in this library cites it |
| Still being cited | 0 / 4 | Cited 0 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex) |
| Senior author's track record | 1 / 4 | Last-listed author Saira Hanif Soroya: h-index 17 (OpenAlex, whole career) |
| Institution's track record | 1 / 3 | University of Cincinnati: institution h-index 918 (OpenAlex) |
| Multi-centre collaboration | 1 / 3 | OpenAlex lists 3 institution(s) in 1 country |
| Indexed in PubMed | 1 / 2 | Not in PubMed, but has a DOI |
| Free to read | 2 / 2 | Free to read |
| Points | 24 / 94 | Scored on 19 of 20 parts. We have no data for the rest, so they are left out: 24 of the 94 points we could judge it on is 26 out of 100. |
| Total | 26 / 100 | Capped to 16 because this is not a peer-reviewed article. |
What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →
Read the original
Full text: free to read — OpenAlex lists this copy as free to read: the link above (checked 6 Feb 1020).
Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
APA 7th
Faiola, A., Villano, J. L., & Soroya, S. H. (2026). Investigating the Usability, Feasibility, and Effect of a Virtual Reality Cognitive Training System on Brain Cancer Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Quasi-Experimental (Single-Arm) Pilot Study. medRxiv (preprint). https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.05.18.26353031
Vancouver
Faiola A, Villano JL, Soroya SH. Investigating the Usability, Feasibility, and Effect of a Virtual Reality Cognitive Training System on Brain Cancer Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Quasi-Experimental (Single-Arm) Pilot Study. medRxiv (preprint). 2026. doi:10.64898/2026.05.18.26353031.
BibTeX
@article{faiola2026-38eaa8de,
author = {Faiola, A. and Villano, J. L. and Soroya, S. H.},
title = {{Investigating the Usability, Feasibility, and Effect of a Virtual Reality Cognitive Training System on Brain Cancer Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Quasi-Experimental (Single-Arm) Pilot Study}},
journal = {medRxiv (preprint)},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.64898/2026.05.18.26353031},
url = {https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.05.18.26353031}
}
Related studies in Mild cognitive impairment
Also tagged “assessment”
840 studies in the library carry the topic tag “assessment”; these are this study's neighbours in a fixed, alphabetical-by-hash tour of them, not the closest in content. All 840 tagged studies.