Abstract
The popularity of virtual reality (VR) has increased rapidly in recent years. While significant technological advancements are apparent, a troublesome problem with VR is that between 20% and 80% of users will experience unpleasant side effects such as nausea, disorientation, blurred vision and headaches-a malady known as Cybersickness. Cybersickness may be caused by a conflict between sensory signals for self-motion: while vision signals that the user is moving in a certain direction with certain acceleration, the vestibular organs provide no corroborating information. To resolve the sensory conflict, vestibular cues may be down-weighted leading to an alteration of how the brain interprets actual vestibular information. This may account for the frequently reported after-effects of VR exposure. Here, we investigated whether exposure to vection in VR modulates vestibular processing. We measured vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs) during brief immersion in a vection-inducing VR environment presented via head-mounted display. We found changes in VEMP asymmetry ratio, with a substantial increase in VEMP amplitude recorded on the left sternocleidomastoid muscle following just one minute of exposure to vection in VR. Our results suggest that exposure to vection in VR modulates vestibular processing, which may explain common after-effects of VR.
Highlights
Any organism moving through its environment receives a constant stream of sensory signals about self‐motion: optic flow inputs from vision, proprioceptive information about the position of the body from muscles, joints and tendons, and inputs for acceleration via the vestibular system
For example in virtual reality (VR), the visual system signals that the user is moving through the environment; vestibular information signals that the body is stationary
The brain has to habituate to extract self‐motion information from vection in a visuo‐vestibular conflicting environment (Akiduki et al, 2003; Keshavarz & Hecht, 2011; Reason & Brand, 1975). To resolve this sensory conflict, vestibular signals for self‐motion may be down‐weighted, which may in turn affect how the brain processes incoming online vestibular information (Gallagher & Ferrè, 2018; Weech & Troje, 2017)
Summary
Any organism moving through its environment receives a constant stream of sensory signals about self‐motion: optic flow inputs from vision, proprioceptive information about the position of the body from muscles, joints and tendons, and inputs for acceleration via the vestibular system. This latter seems important for self‐motion (Green & Angelaki, 2010). We predict that similar changes may occur during exposure to VR‐induced sensory conflict: exposure to vection in VR would modulate the amplitude, and subsequently asymmetry ratio, of VEMPs induced by sound‐evoked vestibular stimulation
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