Impact of the virtual reality on the neural representation of an environment

Monitoring Brain Activity in VR: EEG and Neuroimaging

Virtual reality (VR) is increasingly used in neuroscientific research to increase ecological validity without sacrificing experimental control, to provide a richer visual and multisensory experience, and to foster immersion and presence in study participants, which leads to increased motivation and affective experience. But the use of VR, particularly when coupled with neuroimaging or neurostimulation techniques such as electroencephalography (EEG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), or transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), also yields some challenges. These include intricacies of the technical setup, increased noise in the data due to movement, and a lack of standard protocols for data collection and analysis. This chapter examines current approaches to recording, pre-processing, and analyzing electrophysiological (stationary and mobile EEG), as well as neuroimaging data recorded during VR engagement. It also discusses approaches to synchronizing these data with other data streams. In general, previous research has used a range of different approaches to technical setup and data processing, and detailed reporting of procedures is urgently needed in future studies to ensure comparability and replicability. More support for open-source VR software as well as the development of consensus and best practice papers on issues such as the handling of movement artifacts in mobile EEG-VR will be essential steps in ensuring the continued success of this exciting and powerful technique in neuroscientific research.

[Motor rehabilitation of patients in the acute period of stroke using virtual reality technology]

OBJECTIVE

To study an effect of adjuvant rehabilitation using implicit virtual reality on the dynamics of the motor function of the lower extremities in patients in the acute period of ischemic stroke.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study was carried out to assess the effectiveness and safety of rehabilitation using virtual reality in 60 patients with lower central paresis in the acute period of ischemic stroke, lasting from 3 to 5 days. Patients of the study group additionally received rehabilitation using the hardware-software complex ReviVR, which allows to stimulate the patient's plantar surface by means of pneumo cuffs synchronously with the step of his animated body. Animation of movement was demonstrated to the patient using virtual reality glasses. The duration of the classes was 10 days, 20-25 minutes each. The total duration of rehabilitation measures in the study and comparison groups was 3-4 hours.

RESULTS

A significant regression on NIHSS (3 [-4; -1] and -1 [-2; 0], p<0.001) and a progress on RMI (3 [1; 3] and 2 [0; 2], p<0.001, respectively), between the study group and the control group were found. Changes on FMA-LE section (E-F) occurred on day 10, between the study and comparison groups (9 [5; 16] and 4 [0; 7], respectively, p=0.04). The improvement in FMA-LE out of synergy, in the standing position, indicated an increased readiness of the patient to form an independent walk.

CONCLUSION

The study has shown that the use of virtual reality rehabilitation increases the effectiveness of motor rehabilitation in patients with lower central paresis in the acute period of stroke.

Navigating in Virtual Environments: Does a Map or a Map-Based Description Presented Beforehand Help?

BACKGROUND

One of the aims of research in spatial cognition is to examine the factors capable of optimizing environment learning from navigation, which can be examined using a virtual environment (VE). Different learning conditions can play an important part.

AIM

This study examined the benefits of presenting configured information (layout with elements arranged in it) using a map or verbal description before a learner navigates in a new environment.

METHOD

Ninety participants were assigned to three learning groups of 30 individuals (15 males and 15 females). Before participants navigated in a VE, one group was shown a map of the environment ("map before navigation"), a second group read a map-like description of the environment ("description before navigation"), and a third group started navigating without any prior input ("only navigation"). Participants then learned a path in a VE (presented as if they were driving a car). Their recall was subsequently tested using three types of task: (i) route retracing; (ii) pointing; (iii) path drawing. Several measures were administered to assess participants' individual visuospatial and verbal factors.

RESULTS

There were no differences between the three groups in route retracing. The "map before navigation" group performed better than the "only navigation" group in both the pointing and the path drawing tasks, however, and also outperformed the "description before navigation" group in the path drawing task. Some relations emerged between participants' individual difference factors and their recall performance.

CONCLUSIONS

In learning from navigation, seeing a map beforehand benefits learning accuracy. Recall performance is also supported, at least in part, by individual visuospatial and verbal factors.

Role of Kinematics Assessment and Multimodal Sensorimotor Training for Motion Deficits in Breast Cancer Chemotherapy-Induced Polyneuropathy: A Perspective on Virtual Reality Avatars

Chemotherapy-induced polyneuropathy (CIPN), one of the most severe and incapacitating side effects of chemotherapeutic drugs, is a serious concern in breast cancer therapy leading to dose diminution, delay, or cessation. The reversibility of CIPN is of increasing importance since active chemotherapies prolong survival. Clinical assessment tools show that patients experiencing sensorimotor CIPN symptoms not only do they have to cope with loss in autonomy and life quality, but CIPN has become a key restricting factor in treatment. CIPN incidence poses a clinical challenge and has lacked established and efficient therapeutic options up to now. Complementary, non-opioid therapies are sought for both prevention and management of CIPN. In this perspective, we explore the potential that digital interventions have for sensorimotor CIPN rehabilitation in breast cancer patients. Our primary goal is to emphasize the benefits and impact that Virtual Reality (VR) avatars and Machine Learning have in combination in a digital intervention aiming at (1) assessing the complete kinematics of deficits through learning underlying patient sensorimotor parameters, and (2) parameterize a multimodal VR simulation to drive personalized deficit compensation. We support our perspective by evaluating sensorimotor effects of chemotherapy, the metrics to assess sensorimotor deficits, and relevant clinical studies. We subsequently analyse the neurological substrate of VR sensorimotor rehabilitation, with multisensory integration acting as a key element. Finally, we propose a closed-loop patient-centered design recommendation for CIPN sensorimotor rehabilitation. Our aim is to provoke the scientific community toward the development and use of such digital interventions for more efficient and targeted rehabilitation.

Stroke Affected Lower Limbs Rehabilitation Combining Virtual Reality With Tactile Feedback

In our study, we tested a combination of virtual reality (VR) and robotics in the original adjuvant method of post-stroke lower limb walk restoration in acute phase using a simulation with visual and tactile biofeedback based on VR immersion and physical impact to the soles of patients. The duration of adjuvant therapy was 10 daily sessions of 15 min each. The study showed the following significant rehabilitation progress in Control (N = 27) vs. Experimental (N = 35) groups, respectively: 1.56 ± 0.29 (mean ± SD) and 2.51 ± 0.31 points by Rivermead Mobility Index (p = 0.0286); 2.15 ± 0.84 and 6.29 ± 1.20 points by Fugl-Meyer Assessment Lower Extremities scale (p = 0.0127); and 6.19 ± 1.36 and 13.49 ± 2.26 points by Berg Balance scale (p = 0.0163). P-values were obtained by the Mann-Whitney U test. The simple and intuitive mechanism of rehabilitation, including through the use of sensory and semantic components, allows the therapy of a patient with diaschisis and afferent and motor aphasia. Safety of use allows one to apply the proposed method of therapy at the earliest stage of a stroke. We consider the main finding of this study that the application of rehabilitation with implicit interaction with VR environment produced by the robotics action has measurable significant influence on the restoration of the affected motor function of the lower limbs compared with standard rehabilitation therapy.

Physical exploration of a virtual reality environment: Effects on spatiotemporal associative recognition of episodic memory

Associative memory has been increasingly investigated in immersive virtual reality (VR) environments, but conditions that enable physical exploration remain heavily under-investigated. To address this issue, we designed two museum rooms in VR throughout which participants could physically walk (i.e., high immersive and interactive fidelity). Participants were instructed to memorize all room details, which each contained nine paintings and two stone sculptures. On a subsequent old/new recognition task, we examined to what extent shared associated context (i.e., spatial boundaries, ordinal proximity) and physically travelled distance between paintings facilitated recognition of paintings from the museum rooms. Participants more often correctly recognized a sequentially probed old painting when the directly preceding painting was encoded within the same room or in a proximal position, relative to those encoded across rooms or in a distal position. A novel finding was that sequentially probed paintings from the same room were also recognized better when the physically travelled spatial or temporal distance between the probed paintings was shorter, as compared with longer distances. Taken together, our results in highly immersive VR support the notion that spatiotemporal context facilitates recognition of associated event content.

Virtual Reality Experiments on Emotional Face Recognition Find No Evidence of Mood-Congruent Effects

Mood-congruent effects have been demonstrated many times, but few studies have managed to replicate the effect with natural moods. Additionally, the ecological validity of mood induction and real-time observation deficiency remain unresolved. Using a newly developed, virtual-reality-based eye-tracking technique, the present study conducted real-time observations of mood effects on emotional face recognition with simulated “real-life” pleasant and grisly scenes. In experiment 1, participants performed an emotional face recognition task in both positive and negative virtual reality scenes. The recognition tests and gaze tracking results failed to support mood-congruent effects but did show a mood effect independent of a strong emotional face effect. In experiment 2, participants performed a neutral face recognition task in pleasant and grisly scenes that were matched for arousal levels, and the mood effect disappeared. The results also revealed a robust negativity bias in emotional face recognition, which was found to accompany a mood repair effect.

Shared and Distinct Neural Bases of Large- and Small-Scale Spatial Ability: A Coordinate-Based Activation Likelihood Estimation Meta-Analysis

Background: Spatial ability is vital for human survival and development. However, the relationship between large-scale and small-scale spatial ability remains poorly understood. To address this issue from a novel perspective, we performed an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies to determine the shared and distinct neural bases of these two forms of spatial ability. Methods: We searched Web of Science, PubMed, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar for studies regarding "spatial ability" published within the last 20 years (January 1988 through June 2018). A final total of 103 studies (Table 1) involving 2,085 participants (male = 1,116) and 2,586 foci were incorporated into the meta-analysis. Results: Large-scale spatial ability was associated with activation in the limbic lobe, posterior lobe, occipital lobe, parietal lobe, right anterior lobe, frontal lobe, and right sub-lobar area. Small-scale spatial ability was associated with activation in the parietal lobe, occipital lobe, frontal lobe, right posterior lobe, and left sub-lobar area. Furthermore, conjunction analysis revealed overlapping regions in the sub-gyrus, right superior frontal gyrus, right superior parietal lobule, right middle occipital gyrus, right superior occipital gyrus, left inferior occipital gyrus, and precuneus. The contrast analysis demonstrated that the parahippocampal gyrus, left lingual gyrus, culmen, right middle temporal gyrus, left declive, left superior occipital gyrus, and right lentiform nucleus were more strongly activated during large-scale spatial tasks. In contrast, the precuneus, right inferior frontal gyrus, right precentral gyrus, left inferior parietal lobule, left supramarginal gyrus, left superior parietal lobule, right inferior occipital gyrus, and left middle frontal gyrus were more strongly activated during small-scale spatial tasks. Our results further indicated that there is no absolute difference in the cognitive strategies associated with the two forms of spatial ability (egocentric/allocentric). Conclusion: The results of the present study verify and expand upon the theoretical model of spatial ability proposed by Hegarty et al. Our analysis revealed a shared neural basis between large- and small-scale spatial abilities, as well as specific yet independent neural bases underlying each. Based on these findings, we proposed a more comprehensive version of the behavioral model.

Spatial mental representations: the influence of age on route learning from maps and navigation

Experiencing an environment by navigating in it or reading a map (route and survey views, respectively) is a typical activity of everyday life. Previous research has demonstrated that aging coincides with a decline in spatial learning, but it is unclear whether this depends to some degree on how the learning conditions relate to the method used to assess the recall. The present study aims to shed light on this issue. Forty-six young, 43 young-old and 38 old-old adults learned outdoor environments from a map and a video, then performed sketch map and route repetition tasks. Participants were assessed on their visuo-spatial working memory (VSWM), and reported their self-assessed visuo-spatial inclinations. The results showed that young adults completed the sketch maps more accurately after learning from a map rather than a video. The same was true of the young-old participants (but not of the old-old), though their performance was not as good as the younger group's. The learning condition had no effect on the route repetition task, however, and only age-related differences emerged, with both older groups performing less well than the young adults. After controlling for learning condition and age group, VSWM and participants' reported propensity to explore places predicted their accuracy in both types of spatial task. The overall results, discussed in the light of spatial cognitive and aging models, show that learning condition (combined with recall tasks) and visuo-spatial factors influence spatial representations, even in aging.

The contribution of virtual reality to the diagnosis of spatial navigation disorders and to the study of the role of navigational aids: A systematic literature review

INTRODUCTION

Spatial navigation, which involves higher cognitive functions, is frequently implemented in daily activities, and is critical to the participation of human beings in mainstream environments. Virtual reality is an expanding tool, which enables on one hand the assessment of the cognitive functions involved in spatial navigation, and on the other the rehabilitation of patients with spatial navigation difficulties. Topographical disorientation is a frequent deficit among patients suffering from neurological diseases. The use of virtual environments enables the information incorporated into the virtual environment to be manipulated empirically. But the impact of manipulations seems differ according to their nature (quantity, occurrence, and characteristics of the stimuli) and the target population.

METHODS

We performed a systematic review of research on virtual spatial navigation covering the period from 2005 to 2015. We focused first on the contribution of virtual spatial navigation for patients with brain injury or schizophrenia, or in the context of ageing and dementia, and then on the impact of visual or auditory stimuli on virtual spatial navigation.

RESULTS

On the basis of 6521 abstracts identified in 2 databases (Pubmed and Scopus) with the keywords « navigation » and « virtual », 1103 abstracts were selected by adding the keywords "ageing", "dementia", "brain injury", "stroke", "schizophrenia", "aid", "help", "stimulus" and "cue"; Among these, 63 articles were included in the present qualitative analysis.

CONCLUSION

Unlike pencil-and-paper tests, virtual reality is useful to assess large-scale navigation strategies in patients with brain injury or schizophrenia, or in the context of ageing and dementia. Better knowledge about both the impact of the different aids and the cognitive processes involved is essential for the use of aids in neurorehabilitation.

Knowing what and where: TMS evidence for the dual neural basis of geographical knowledge

All animals acquire knowledge about the topography of their immediate environment through direct exploration. Uniquely, humans also acquire geographical knowledge indirectly through exposure to maps and verbal information, resulting in a rich database of global geographical knowledge. We used transcranial magnetic stimulation to investigate the structure and neural basis of this critical but poorly understood component of semantic knowledge. Participants completed tests of geographical knowledge that probed either information about spatial locations (e.g., France borders Spain) or non-spatial taxonomic information (e.g., France is a country). TMS applied to the anterior temporal lobe, a region that codes conceptual knowledge for words and objects, had a general disruptive effect on the geographical tasks. In contrast, stimulation of the intraparietal sulcus (IPS), a region involved in the coding of spatial and numerical information, had a highly selective effect on spatial geographical decisions but no effect on taxonomic judgements. Our results establish that geographical concepts lie at the intersection of two distinct neural representation systems, and provide insights into how the interaction of these systems shape our understanding of the world.

Genetic contributions to visuospatial cognition in Williams syndrome: insights from two contrasting partial deletion patients

Background

Williams syndrome (WS) is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder arising from a hemizygotic deletion of approximately 27 genes on chromosome 7, at locus 7q11.23. WS is characterised by an uneven cognitive profile, with serious deficits in visuospatial tasks in comparison to relatively proficient performance in some other cognitive domains such as language and face processing. Individuals with partial genetic deletions within the WS critical region (WSCR) have provided insights into the contribution of specific genes to this complex phenotype. However, the combinatorial effects of different genes remain elusive.

Methods

We report on visuospatial cognition in two individuals with contrasting partial deletions in the WSCR: one female (HR), aged 11 years 9 months, with haploinsufficiency for 24 of the WS genes (up to GTF2IRD1), and one male (JB), aged 14 years 2 months, with the three most telomeric genes within the WSCR deleted, or partially deleted.

Results

Our in-depth phenotyping of the visuospatial domain from table-top psychometric, and small- and large-scale experimental tasks reveal a profile in HR in line with typically developing controls, albeit with some atypical features. These data are contrasted with patient JB’s atypical profile of strengths and weaknesses across the visuospatial domain, as well as with more substantial visuospatial deficits in individuals with the full WS deletion.

Conclusions

Our findings point to the contribution of specific genes to spatial processing difficulties associated with WS, highlighting the multifaceted nature of spatial cognition and the divergent effects of genetic deletions within the WSCR on different components of visuospatial ability. The importance of general transcription factors at the telomeric end of the WSCR, and their combinatorial effects on the WS visuospatial phenotype are also discussed.

Active and passive contributions to spatial learning

It seems intuitively obvious that active exploration of a new environment will lead to better spatial learning than will passive exposure. However, the literature on this issue is decidedly mixed-in part, because the concept itself is not well defined. We identify five potential components of active spatial learning and review the evidence regarding their role in the acquisition of landmark, route, and survey knowledge. We find that (1) idiothetic information in walking contributes to metric survey knowledge, (2) there is little evidence as yet that decision making during exploration contributes to route or survey knowledge, (3) attention to place-action associations and relevant spatial relations contributes to route and survey knowledge, although landmarks and boundaries appear to be learned without effort, (4) route and survey information are differentially encoded in subunits of working memory, and (5) there is preliminary evidence that mental manipulation of such properties facilitates spatial learning. Idiothetic information appears to be necessary to reveal the influence of attention and, possibly, decision making in survey learning, which may explain the mixed results in desktop virtual reality. Thus, there is indeed an active advantage in spatial learning, which manifests itself in the task-dependent acquisition of route and survey knowledge.

Dynamic visuomotor transformation involved with remote flying of a plane utilizes the 'Mirror Neuron' system

Brain regions involved with processing dynamic visuomotor representational transformation are investigated using fMRI. The perceptual-motor task involved flying (or observing) a plane through a simulated Red Bull Air Race course in first person and third person chase perspective. The third person perspective is akin to remote operation of a vehicle. The ability for humans to remotely operate vehicles likely has its roots in neural processes related to imitation in which visuomotor transformation is necessary to interpret the action goals in an egocentric manner suitable for execution. In this experiment for 3^rd person perspective the visuomotor transformation is dynamically changing in accordance to the orientation of the plane. It was predicted that 3^rd person remote flying, over 1^st, would utilize brain regions composing the ‘Mirror Neuron’ system that is thought to be intimately involved with imitation for both execution and observation tasks. Consistent with this prediction differential brain activity was present for 3^rd person over 1^st person perspectives for both execution and observation tasks in left ventral premotor cortex, right dorsal premotor cortex, and inferior parietal lobule bilaterally (Mirror Neuron System) (Behaviorally: 1^st>3^rd). These regions additionally showed greater activity for flying (execution) over watching (observation) conditions. Even though visual and motor aspects of the tasks were controlled for, differential activity was also found in brain regions involved with tool use, motion perception, and body perspective including left cerebellum, temporo-occipital regions, lateral occipital cortex, medial temporal region, and extrastriate body area. This experiment successfully demonstrates that a complex perceptual motor real-world task can be utilized to investigate visuomotor processing. This approach (Aviation Cerebral Experimental Sciences ACES) focusing on direct application to lab and field is in contrast to standard methodology in which tasks and conditions are reduced to their simplest forms that are remote from daily life experience.