JMIR Serious Games

Body movement-controlled video games (BMCVGs) are increasingly adopted in rehabilitation because they combine physical training with interactive engagement. Flow experience, a critical factor for enhancing user engagement and training efficacy, exhibits age-related differences that are essential for designing age-appropriate rehabilitation tasks. However, current BMCVG rehabilitation tasks often overlook these age-related differences in subjective experience, leading to insufficient engagement among older adults.

Amblyopia is the leading cause of visual impairment in children worldwide. The predominant clinical treatment, occlusion therapy, is marred by poor adherence, often attributed to the physical discomfort and social stigma associated with eye patching. Adjunct digital visual trainings have not consistently sustained patient engagement due to their repetitive nature, thereby compromising their efficacy.

In face of an increasing treatment need of persons with dementia, effective and efficient interventions with a focus on quality of life need to be established. In this context, Serious Games have received increasing attention. However, there is a lack of applications specifically designed for people with dementia.

Recent studies suggest that eye movements during tasks reflect cognitive processes and that analysis of eye movements using eye-tracking devices can identify developmental impairments in young children. Maintaining engagement during eye-tracking assessments in young children is challenging and often results in data loss due to distractions. This leads to incomplete recordings and repeated measurements, which can be taxing for young children. Gamification of eye-tracking procedures for cognitive diagnosis might increase engagement and help mitigate these problems, but its effects should be studied and quantified.

Electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) systems enhance human capabilities, such as reaction time, by inducing preemptive muscle contractions. One of the key challenges for EMS applications is preserving the user’s sense of agency, and it defined as a subjective experience of initiating and controlling one’s actions. Prior research highlights the importance of the “sweet spot”—a balance between sense of agency and preemptive gain—for effective EMS use. However, most prior studies have focused on simplistic tasks, leaving a gap in understanding how the sweet spot functions in complex and ecological game scenarios. Moreover, the potential benefits of a personalized approach were not explored.

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are a significant health concern in the workplace, and while ergonomic interventions are commonly used, their long-term effectiveness is often questioned. Serious games (SGs), designed to go beyond entertainment, have emerged as a promising tool that may address some of the limitations of traditional interventions, such as the need for sustained impact and greater worker engagement.

The quality and effectiveness of healthcare service delivery are significantly influenced by the engagement and motivation of healthcare workers. Integrating gamified digital tools into healthcare workers’ workflows presents a promising approach to enhancing them. However, there is currently a lack of evidence supporting the implementation of such interventions.

Children with Down syndrome (DS) often experience cognitive and adaptive challenges that affect their ability to acquire and retain critical life skills, including those needed for effective response during emergencies. Traditional training methods used to prepare children for crises are frequently static, noninteractive, and insufficiently tailored to the unique learning profiles of children with DS. These limitations contribute to reduced engagement, poor knowledge retention, and inadequate real-world preparedness. Recent advancements in game-based learning, particularly serious games, have demonstrated potential for enhancing education and skill development among individuals with cognitive impairments.

The Processing Speed Index (PSI) of the Korean Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Fifth Edition (K-WISC-V) is highly correlated with symptoms of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and is an important indicator of cognitive function. However, restrictions on the frequency of testing prevent short-term PSI assessments. An accessible, objective technique for predicting PSI scores would enable better short-term monitoring and intervention for children with ADHD.

The cholinergic system mediates essential aspects of cognitive function, yet its structure and function decline progressively with age, by an estimated 2.5% per decade across the lifespan. Cognitive training may help counteract age-related declines in cholinergic functioning and slow associated deficits in cognitive performance.

Cognitive training is an effective approach to support cognitive function in older adults. Incorporating meaningful leisure activities, such as gardening, may enhance both engagement and training outcomes. While fully immersive virtual reality (VR) offers ecologically valid and engaging environments that can further boost motivation, limited research has explored the combination of VR-based cognitive training with leisure activities for older adults.

Colorectal cancer surgery requires perioperative fasting to ensure safety, but this can cause physiological and psychological discomfort, such as impaired intestinal motility, bloating, immune suppression, anxiety, and appetite loss. To address this challenge, we developed the virtual reality (VR) multisensory sham-feeding device (VRMS-SFD), based on Pavlov conditioned reflex mechanism, where vagal stimulation triggered by seeing, smelling, or thinking about food activates cephalic-phase responses, promoting digestive secretion and intestinal motility. The device integrates multisensory stimulation—visual (food presentation), auditory (eating sounds and relaxing music), and olfactory (food-specific scents)—to create a VR dining experience. It features three VR scenes (Chinese restaurant, fruit shop, and dessert shop) with 23 food options, offering immersive interaction through a head-mounted display and synchronized scent release.