Multitasking and Prospective Memory: Can Virtual Reality be Useful for Diagnosis?

Prospective memory (PM) is defined as the ability to perform an intended action in the future [4]. It is with this type of memory that one can observe the highest number of memory errors made within the context of everyday life [6]. Furthermore, researchers have demonstrated that prospective memory is extremely sensitive to traumatic brain injury (TBI) [5]. In the past few years, research in the field of PM has shown how the frontal lobes are involved in the context of multitasking. Multitasking is defined by the ability to execute and monitor a set of “goal-oriented” behaviours in order to realize planned actions [3]. Shallice and Burgess [8] have discussed the importance of multitasking as an essential component of prospective memory. During the last few years, neuropsychological tests have been criticized, especially with regard to everyday functioning. At present, neuropsychological tools sometimes fail to detect subtle and complex deficits in the goal-oriented behaviours in order to realise selfplanned actions [8]. We now seem to have at our disposal virtual reality (VR) to compensate for the different limits of traditional assessment. One of the major plusses of VR is its capacity to bring the real world into a labora-