A Serious Game for Early Detection and Assessment of Social Apathy: A Pilot Study

Cristina Díez Bort, Cristina Díez Bort, Razeen Hussain, Valeria Manera, Manuela Chessa, Fabio Solari

2025

Abstract

With increasing life expectancy, the prevalence of age-related disorders such as dementia, often preceded by mild cognitive impairment (MCI), has risen significantly. Among the early signs of cognitive decline, social apathy stands out as a key indicator, associated with an increased risk of progression to dementia. In this context, we present ApathySEED, a serious game developed to assess social apathy in individuals with MCI. The game uses decision-making in social scenarios to evaluate apathy across initiative, interest, and emotion subdomains. A pilot study involving 33 healthy participants was conducted to validate the game’s usability and effectiveness as a tool for assessing social apathy. Standardized questionnaires, including SUS, NASA-TLX, and AMI, were used to measure game performance, cognitive load, and apathy levels. Results suggest that ApathySEED is a promising tool for apathy assessment, with low cognitive load and high usability, making it suitable for future clinical utilization.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Bort C., Hussain R., Manera V., Chessa M. and Solari F. (2025). A Serious Game for Early Detection and Assessment of Social Apathy: A Pilot Study. In Proceedings of the 20th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications - Volume 1: HUCAPP; ISBN 978-989-758-728-3, SciTePress, pages 543-550. DOI: 10.5220/0013119700003912

in Bibtex Style

@conference{hucapp25,
author={Cristina Bort and Razeen Hussain and Valeria Manera and Manuela Chessa and Fabio Solari},
title={A Serious Game for Early Detection and Assessment of Social Apathy: A Pilot Study},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 20th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications - Volume 1: HUCAPP},
year={2025},
pages={543-550},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013119700003912},
isbn={978-989-758-728-3},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 20th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications - Volume 1: HUCAPP
TI - A Serious Game for Early Detection and Assessment of Social Apathy: A Pilot Study
SN - 978-989-758-728-3
AU - Bort C.
AU - Hussain R.
AU - Manera V.
AU - Chessa M.
AU - Solari F.
PY - 2025
SP - 543
EP - 550
DO - 10.5220/0013119700003912
PB - SciTePress