Virtual Reality Participants Research Articles

M102. MEASURING PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES ASSOCIATED WITH SOCIAL STRESS IN A VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH CHILDHOOD TRAUMA IN EARLY SCHIZOPHRENIA - A PILOT STUDY

BackgroundIn lower to middle income countries (LMIC), the influences of environmental stress on neurobiological processes involved in the development of schizophrenia is of great importance. High levels of stress may contribute to an increased burden of schizophrenia, including profound functional impairment and disability, decreased productivity, and even elevated mortality. Stress in Schizophrenia has been associated with behavioral disturbances such as maladaptive coping styles as well as well-established physiological abnormalities in sensorimotor gating in the form of abnormal startle responses. In turn, childhood trauma exposure is known to affect physiological stress responses. Indeed, we have found childhood trauma to be associated with both white matter and hippocampal changes in schizophrenia. Few studies, however, have explored the relationship between Childhood trauma and stress responses in schizophrenia. In recent years Virtual Reality (VR) has undergone a resurgence as a viable method for studying fear related physiological stress responses in an ecologically valid manner. Here we aim to investigate the potential relationship between abnormal physiological stress responses in schizophrenia with early life adversity.MethodsPhysiological response data were collected while participants completed a VR paradigm based on the Trier stress test, a well-established social stressor that reliably elicits a stress response in participants in VR and HPA axis attenuation in schizophrenia. Data were also collected in a fear of heights environment, not associated with abnormalities in schizophrenia. Childhood trauma was assessed with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). HPA axis stress responses during the course of the task were assessed using saliva cortisol samples collected at key points during the paradigms.ResultsPreliminary data of both the social anxiety and fear of heights scenario will be presented. We will focus specifically on the viability of using VR in a LMIC context.DiscussionVR could prove to be a cost-effective tool to explore the relationship between childhood trauma, stress sensitivity and schizophrenia.

Revisiting affordance perception in contemporary virtual reality

Virtual reality (VR) applications have rapidly gained renewed popularity and are extensively employed for replicating real-life scenarios that may otherwise be impractical to recreate. All such VR applications require that the environments being used provide high levels of immersion and mimic their real-world counterpart in terms of size, distance, depth, and action capabilities. Many VR applications being developed for training and entertainment require users to traverse an immersive virtual environment (IVE), where determining whether one can pass through an opening or aperture is one of the most frequently made decisions. In this experiment, we empirically compare passability judgments made in an IVE to those made in the real world. Participants judged whether they could pass through various widths of an adjustable sliding doorway in the real world and in a to-scale virtual replica viewed through an HTC Vive head-mounted display. If uncertain of their initial judgments, participants were permitted to walk towards the doorway. Results indicate that participants accurately perceive their ability to pass through doorways in both the real world and VR. However, participants in VR required more exposure to dynamic information via movement through the IVE in order to reach a real-world level of perceptual accuracy.

Acute Effects of Immersive Virtual Reality Exercise on Young Adults' Situational Motivation.

The development of innovative technology, such as virtual reality (VR), has provided opportunities for promoting physical activity (PA) in a fun and engaging manner. The purpose of this study was to examine differences in young adults’ situational motivation (SM) among immersive VR, non-immersive VR, and traditional stationary cycling sessions. In all, 49 healthy college students (35 females; Mage = 23.6 years, SD = 3.4; M%BF = 24.0%, SD = 7.5) completed three separate 20 min cycling sessions: (1) immersive VR cycling; (2) non-immersive VR cycling; and (3) traditional cycling. Participants’ SM was assessed via the situational motivation scale, which included four subconstructs: intrinsic motivation, identified regulation, external regulation, and amotivation. Repeated measures ANOVAs indicated significant differences for situational motivation between cycling sessions (F (2, 96) = 4.74–53.04, p < 0.01, ηp2 = 0.090–0.525). Specifically, participants elicited the highest level of intrinsic motivation in immersive VR cycling compared to the other two sessions. Moreover, participants in both immersive VR and traditional cycling showed greater identified regulation than the non-immersive VR session. Furthermore, participants showed greater external regulation compared to the immersive VR session. In addition, greater amotivation was observed in non-immersive VR compared to the immersive VR session. Findings suggested that immersive VR exercise has the potential to be an attractive exercise alternative, possibly promoting greater PA participation and adherence among young adults.

An Immersive Virtual Reality Platform for Assessing Spatial Navigation Memory in Predementia Screening: Feasibility and Usability Study.

BackgroundTraditional methods for assessing memory are expensive and have high administrative costs. Memory assessment is important for establishing cognitive impairment in cases such as detecting dementia in older adults. Virtual reality (VR) technology can assist in establishing better quality outcome in such crucial screening by supporting the well-being of individuals and offering them an engaging, cognitively challenging task that is not stressful. However, unmet user needs can compromise the validity of the outcome. Therefore, screening technology for older adults must address their specific design and usability requirements.ObjectiveThis study aimed to design and evaluate the feasibility of an immersive VR platform to assess spatial navigation memory in older adults and establish its compatibility by comparing the outcome to a standard screening platform on a personal computer (PC).MethodsVR-CogAssess is a platform integrating an Oculus Rift head-mounted display and immersive photorealistic imagery. In a pilot study with healthy older adults (N=42; mean age 73.22 years, SD 9.26), a landmark recall test was conducted, and assessment on the VR-CogAssess was compared against a standard PC (SPC) setup.ResultsResults showed that participants in VR were significantly more engaged (P=.003), achieved higher landmark recall scores (P=.004), made less navigational mistakes (P=.04), and reported a higher level of presence (P=.002) than those in SPC setup. In addition, participants in VR indicated no significantly higher stress than SPC setup (P=.87).ConclusionsThe study findings suggest immersive VR is feasible and compatible with SPC counterpart for spatial navigation memory assessment. The study provides a set of design guidelines for creating similar platforms in the future.

Comparing Virtual Reality and Desktop Interface for Reviewing 3D CAD Models

AbstractUse of virtual reality (VR) is considered beneficial for reviewing 3D models throughout product design. However, research on its usability in the design field is still explorative, and previous studies are often contradictory regarding the usability of VR for 3D model review. This paper argues that the usability of VR should be assessed by analysing human factors such as spatial perception and taking into consideration the complexity of the reviewed product. Hence, a comparative evaluation study has been conducted to assess spatial perception in desktop interface-based and VR-based review of 3D models of products with different levels of complexity. The results show that participants in VR more could perceive the fit of user interface elements, and estimation of the model dimensions had a lower relative error than in desktop interface. It has been found that various sensory cues are used to perceive the model size and that the employed sensory cues depend on the level of complexity. Finally, it is proposed that differences between a desktop interface and VR for reviewing models are more evident when reviewing models of higher complexity levels.

X‐Reality and the HTC Vive: Virtually No Match for the Physical Model in Anatomical Education

Recent advancements in computer technology have resulted in the rise of X‐reality (XR) systems. Some institutions have begun to use XR systems as an alternative to cadaveric specimens and physical models. This transition has been carried out despite a lack of evidence about the efficacy of XR. In our earliest study, we compared the physical model to 3D, interactive projections on a 2D screen and found participants that learned from the physical model performed significantly better in nominal measures. Following this study, we explored the efficacy of more refined XR systems and established that participants who learned from the physical model performed significantly better in both nominal and functional measures of anatomical knowledge compared to those who learned from the Microsoft HoloLens, which is a mixed‐reality (MR) device. In our current study, we explored the efficacy of the HTC Vive, a pure virtual‐reality (VR) device, in comparison to the physical model in anatomical education. We hypothesized that given the enthusiasm surrounding this XR system, the VR model should perform at least as well as the physical model. We first conducted a preliminary qualitative study with 20 participants to develop an optimal learning environment for the VR model. Following this preliminary analysis, we recruited 20 McMaster University students with no prior formal anatomy education. Participants were allotted 10 minutes to learn 20 anatomical structures from a pelvic model on the VR headset. Participants were then given a 25‐question test on a female, cadaveric pelvis with no time limit. The test questions were either nominal or functional. The nominal questions involved identifying the structures labelled on the cadaver and the functional questions involved interpreting the function of a structure based on its location and form. We compared the results of the VR participants to the 20 participants who learned on the physical model and the 20 participants who learned on the MR model from our HoloLens study. Our analysis demonstrated that participants learning on the physical model performed significantly better than the VR model when comparing total testing scores (56.4% vs 45.0%, respectively; p = 0.034). Furthermore, the VR model participants performed better than the MR model participants in terms of total testing score, although these results were not statistically significant (45.0% vs 37.6%, respectively; p = 0.267). In conclusion, these findings provide further evidence to support the superiority of the physical model over XR systems. Our future directions involve testing with other, more complex anatomical structures and exploring the factors that contribute to the superiority of the physical model, such as the role of stereopsis.Support or Funding InformationSelf‐fundedThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Applicability of Virtual Reality Systems for Evaluating Pedestrians’ Perception and Behavior

Abstract In order to properly design pedestrian spaces, it is important to consider pedestrian safety and comfort. Recently, with the rapid progress of virtual reality (VR) technologies, reproducing objects closer to VR users has become easier. Therefore, VR systems are expected to be valuable tools for evaluating safety and comfort from the pedestrians’ viewpoint. In particular, VR enables users to interact not only with ordinary vehicles but also with surrounding pedestrians or personal mobility vehicles, and thus a wider range of applications are expected. However, most attempts to validate VR performance have so far have been limited to cases of pedestrians encountering ordinary vehicles. In this research, pedestrians’ cognition and behavioral characteristics toward other pedestrians and personal mobility vehicles were analyzed by comparing those measured in VR and in real spaces. It was shown that the perception of distance and subjective danger from personal mobility vehicles are not different in VR and real spaces when the vehicle approaches VR participants from the front and back, although the subjective danger tends to be less sensitive to the lateral space between VR participants and the personal mobility vehicle. It was also revealed that VR participants tend to keep a larger lateral clearance than in real spaces when avoiding other pedestrians.

Exploring Enjoyment of Cinematic Narratives in Virtual Reality: A Comparison Study

This study compares watching a film in a traditional theater setting to watching the same film in a virtual theater using a virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display (HMD). The study seeks to determine whether watching a film in a virtual theater is a comfortable experience that viewers can tolerate; and whether watching in VR produces similar feelings of identification, transportation, and enjoyment for the films as watching in a traditional theater. Using the Oculus Rift DK2 HMD and the Riftmax virtual theater software, participants watched either Signs or Ferris Bueller's Day Off in a virtual theater. Other participants watched the same films in a traditional theater setting, and independent comparisons were made. Results indicate that over 90% of the VR participants were able to watch the entire movie in the virtual theater, and feelings of identification, transportation, and enjoyment were quite similar between conditions. Differences found were attributable to the films' content, with an interaction between VR and theater conditions. Implications and future research are discussed.

Manipulating spatial distance in virtual reality: Effects on treadmill walking performance in patients with intermittent claudication

Research indicates that the manipulation of spatial distance between objects in a previously observed environment may go unnoticed when the categorical information of these objects, such as their order, matches that of memory for the environment. Using a repeated measures design, we investigated whether manipulations of spatial distance in virtual reality (VR) can influence treadmill exercise performance (i.e., walking distance) in patients with intermittent claudication; a cramping pain or discomfort in the legs, which occurs during exercise. Participants (N = 19) carried out four treadmill exercise sessions; one without VR and three with a VR environment to move through while walking. They were instructed to walk until the pain forced them to stop. All VR sessions contained the same environment, but in the second and third session it was ‘stretched’ and ‘compressed’. Walking distance was not influenced by the mere addition of VR. However, both VR manipulations led to greater walking distance than the VR baseline session and participants walked furthest when presented with the stretched environment. The results indicate that the manipulation of spatial distance in VR can be of clinical relevance; a finding that may be applied in the development of future medical applications.

Effect of odour on multisensory environmental evaluations of road traffic

This study investigated the effect of odour on multisensory environmental evaluations of road traffic. The study aimed to answer: (1) Does odour have any effect on evaluations on noise, landscape and the overall environment? (2) How different are participants' responses to odour stimuli and are these differences influential on the evaluations? Experimental scenarios varied in three Traffic levels, three Tree screening conditions and two Odour presence conditions were designed, and presented to participants in virtual reality. Perceived Loudness, Noise Annoyance, Landscape Quality and Overall Pleasantness of each scenario were evaluated and the results were analysed. It shows that Odour presence did not have significant main effect on any of the evaluations, but has significant interactions with Traffic level on Noise Annoyance and with Tree screening on Landscape Quality, indicating the potential of odour to modulate noise and visual landscape perceptions in specific environmental content. Concerning participants' responses to odour stimuli, large differences were found in this study. However, the differences did not seem to be influential on environmental evaluations in this study. Larger samples of participants may benefit this study for more significant results of odour effect.

Self-Confidence and Paranoia: An Experimental Study Using an Immersive Virtual Reality Social Situation.

Paranoia may build directly upon negative thoughts about the self. There have been few direct experimental tests of this hypothesis. The aim of the study was to test the immediate effects of manipulating self-esteem in individuals vulnerable to paranoia. A two condition cross-over experimental test was conducted. The participants were 26 males reporting paranoid ideation in the past month. Each participant experienced a neutral immersive virtual reality (VR) social environment twice. Before VR participants received a low self-confidence manipulation or a high self-confidence manipulation. The order of manipulation type was randomized. Paranoia about the VR avatars was assessed. The low self-confidence manipulation, relative to the high self-confidence manipulation, led to significantly more negative social comparison in virtual reality and higher levels of paranoia. Level of self-confidence affects the occurrence of paranoia in vulnerable individuals. The clinical implication is that interventions designed to improve self-confidence may reduce persecutory ideation.

Roughness perception in haptic virtual reality for sighted and blind people

Psychophysical functions for perceived roughness, relating ln (magnitude estimate of roughness) to ln (groove width), were obtained for blind and sighted participants in virtual reality using the PHANToM force feedback device. The stimuli were sinusoidal surfaces with groove widths between 0.675 mm and 20.700 mm. Group functions showed a similar nonlinearity to those obtained in physical reality using rigid probes (Klatzky, Lederman, Hamilton, Grindley, & Swendsen, 2003; Lederman, Klatzky, Hamilton, & Ramsay, 1999). Individual functions gave a different picture. Of 23 total participants, there were 13 with wholly descending linear psychometric functions, 7 with quadratic functions similar to the group function, and 3 with anomalous functions. Individual power law exponents showed no significant effects of visual status. All analyses gave a power law exponent close to -0.80. The implications for theories of roughness, methodologies of data analysis, and the design of haptic virtual reality interfaces are considered.

Health and safety implications of virtual reality: a review of empirical evidence

For the last 10 years a number of papers have been written that discuss human factors issues associated with virtual reality (VR). The nature of these papers has gradually evolved from speculation and anecdotal report to empirical research. Despite developments in VR technology, some participants still experience health and safety problems associated with VR use-termed VR-induced symptoms and effects (VRISE). The key concern from the literature is VR-induced sickness, experienced by a large proportion of VR participants, but for the majority these effects are mild and subside quickly. This paper makes a number of recommendations regarding the future direction of research into health and safety implications of VR, including the need to take into account the way in which VR is being used when conducting empirical research: first, to ensure that studies consider both effects and their consequences; second, to ensure that empirical trials reflect the actual likely context of VR use; third, to consider interactions between effects; and finally, to consider ways in which effects can be managed.

Effects of participating in virtual environmentsa review of current knowledge

The rapid develoment of Virtual Reality (VR) systems and their increasingly widespread application have increased concerns in some quarters for the health and safety of VR participants. In particular there have been a number of speculative reports of many different types of side effect, but with little if any scientific evidence. Any side effects might be related to the very nature of VR technology, its technical characteristics, the type of virtual environment experienced or factors of the participant; it is certain that we cannot identify causitive mechanisms for any side effects without thorough understanding of VR technology and mode of operation. Moreover, there is no agreement as yet on a suitable bank of reliable, valid and robust test methods and criteria to assess any side effects of VR participation or the consequences of these. This paper explores these issues with reference to published research and a current research programme funded by the UK Health and Safety Executive.