A Virtual Reality-Based Assessment Tool for Apathy

ImportanceApathy is a common and disabling syndrome in aging and neurodegenerative disease. Existing assessment tools rely on subjective reporting, limiting their accuracy in cognitively impaired individuals or in individuals with otherwise impaired insight. ObjectiveTo identify behavioral subgroups relevant to apathy using gaze-based metrics in an emotionally salient virtual reality (VR) setting, and to characterize their clinical and physiological profiles. Design, Setting, and ParticipantsCross-sectional study of 85 older adults (mean age 74 {+/-} 5.7 years) with varying cognitive abilities, recruited from a memory clinic. Participants completed a naturalistic VR task while gaze and physiological signals were recorded. ExposuresPositive, aversive, and neutral images were presented within a 3D VR environment. Gaze features included time to first fixation, total fixation duration, and fixation variability. Physiological signals included heart rate variability (HRV), galvanic skin response, and respiration. Main Outcomes and MeasuresUnsupervised clustering (K-means) was applied to gaze metrics to derive behavioral engagement profiles. Between-group differences in apathy severity (LARS), cognitive function (MoCA), and physiological reactivity were examined using linear mixed-effects models. ResultsTwo distinct behavioral subgroups emerged: "engagers" (n = 48) and "non-engagers" (n = 37). Non-engagers were older, showed higher apathy scores, and had lower MoCA scores. Physiologically, they exhibited lower baseline HRV but showed a selective increase in HRV during exposure to positive stimuli. No group differences were observed in response to aversive stimuli or in other physiological signals. Conclusions and RelevanceThis study introduces a novel, nonverbal approach for identifying apathy through naturalistic gaze behavior in VR. The findings highlight a physiologically responsive yet behaviorally disengaged subgroup, suggesting that emotional reactivity may persist even when outward engagement is diminished. Gaze-based phenotyping in immersive environments may offer a scalable tool for detecting motivational impairments in aging and can be further tested in individuals with poor insight to inform future personalized assessment strategies.