Positive emotional responses to socially assistive robots in people with dementia: a pilot study (Preprint)

Abstract

Interventions and care that can evoke positive emotions and reduce apathy or agitation are important in long-term care for people with dementia. Nonetheless, due to the increasing number of people with dementia, and the lack of caregivers, there are very few settings where such specialized care can be provided. Therefore, in recent years, socially assistive robots have been expected to be introduced into the settings of long-term care. However, it has not yet been elucidated enough how socially assistive robots are perceived by people with dementia.

This study aimed to elucidate the immediate emotional reactions of people with dementia objectively and quantitatively to stimuli presented by socially assistive robots from the perspective of processing multiple sensory modalities. This study also examined the clinical characteristics of participants who exhibited positive emotional responses.

This pilot study adopted a single-arm interventional design. Socially assistive robots were presented to nursing home residents in a three-step procedure: (1) the robot was placed in front of a participant (visual stimuli), (2) the robot was manipulated to produce sound (visual and auditory stimuli), and (3) participants held the robot in their hands (visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli). Expression intensity (EI) values were calculated using the facial expression analysis by FaceReaderTM. To identify the characteristics of those who showed positive responses, we defined the responder group as the participants whose EI value for “happy” was above average for more than half of all sessions. Basic characteristics and clinical measures were compared between the responder and the non-responder groups. Moreover, EI values for “happy” were compared across the aforementioned three stimuli patterns within each group.

A total of 29 participants (age mean [standard deviation] 88.7 [6.2] years, 27 females, the Japanese version of Mini-Mental State Examination 18.2 [5.1] points) were recruited. The responder group (n=7) demonstrated a significantly greater Barthel Index, which measures performance of basic activities of daily living (ADL), than the non-responder group (n=21) (85.0 [10.8] vs. 60.2 [25.7] points, p=0.017, effect size 1.072). There was a significant increase in the EI values for “happy” when all sensory modalities (visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli) were presented compared to the other two patterns (visual stimuli alone, or visual and auditory stimuli) in the non-responder group (p<0.001), but not in the responder group.

Participants who showed positive responses to the socially assistive robots had higher ADLs. Even for those who are relatively unresponsive, the provision of various sensory stimulation elicited positive emotional responses. These results provide important insights into the effective use of socially assistive robots in dementia care.

UMIN Clinical Trials Registry No. UMIN000046256.