Perspective and agency during video gaming influences spatial presence experience and brain activation patterns

Michael Havranek,Lutz Jäncke,Nicolas Langer,Marcus Cheetham

doi:10.1186/1744-9081-8-34

Michael Havranek, Lutz Jäncke + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/1744-9081-8-34

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Abstract

BackgroundThe experience of spatial presence (SP), i.e., the sense of being present in a virtual environment, emerges if an individual perceives himself as 1) if he were actually located (self-location) and 2) able to act in the virtual environment (possible actions). In this study, two main media factors (perspective and agency) were investigated while participants played a commercially available video game.MethodsThe differences in SP experience and associated brain activation were compared between the conditions of game play in first person perspective (1PP) and third person perspective (3PP) as well as between agency, i.e., active navigation of the video game character (active), and non-agency, i.e., mere passive observation (passive). SP was assessed using standard questionnaires, and brain activation was measured using electroencephalography (EEG) and sLORETA source localisation (standard low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography).ResultsHigher SP ratings were obtained in the 1PP compared with the 3PP condition and in the active compared with the passive condition. On a neural level, we observed in the 1PP compared with the 3PP condition significantly less alpha band power in the parietal, the occipital and the limbic cortex. In the active compared with the passive condition, we uncovered significantly more theta band power in frontal brain regions.ConclusionWe propose that manipulating the factors perspective and agency influences SP formation by either directly or indirectly modulating the ego-centric visual processing in a fronto-parietal network. The neuroscientific results are discussed in terms of the theoretical concepts of SP.

Highlights

The experience of spatial presence (SP), i.e., the sense of being present in a virtual environment, emerges if an individual perceives himself as 1) if he were located and 2) able to act in the virtual environment
Behavioural results Comparing spatial presence” (SP) ratings, significant main effects were found in both sub-scales (Friedman test: self-location: χ2 = 25.46, df = 3, p < 0.001; possible actions: χ2 = 47.50, df = 3, p < 0.001)
The most important findings may be summarised as follows: (1) Higher SP ratings were obtained in 1PP compared with 3PP and in the active compared with the passive condition

Summary

Introduction

The experience of spatial presence (SP), i.e., the sense of being present in a virtual environment, emerges if an individual perceives himself as 1) if he were located (self-location) and 2) able to act in the virtual environment (possible actions). When confronted with well-designed virtual reality (VR) scenarios, many people experience a subjective sense of being in the VR environment while transiently being unaware of the technology that delivers the stream of virtual input to the senses This specific feeling has been coined “spatial presence” (SP) [1,2,3]. The sense of SP emerges if this alternative ERF is chosen as the primary ERF over the competing ERF of the real physical world The outcome of this selection process is considered to be based on two critical questions: whether a person perceives himself 1) as if located in the mediated environment (self-location) and 2) as being able to act in the mediated environment (possible actions)

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