Affective Image Sequence Viewing in Virtual Reality Theater Environment: Frontal Alpha Asymmetry Responses From Mobile EEG

Background: Numerous studies have investigated emotion in virtual reality (VR) experiences using self-reported data in order to understand valence and arousal dimensions of emotion. Objective physiological data concerning valence and arousal has been less explored. Electroencephalography (EEG) can be used to examine correlates of emotional responses such as valence and arousal in virtual reality environments. Used across varying fields of research, images are able to elicit a range of affective responses from viewers. In this study, we display image sequences with annotated valence and arousal values on a screen within a virtual reality theater environment. Understanding how brain activity responses are related to affective stimuli with known valence and arousal ratings may contribute to a better understanding of affective processing in virtual reality.Methods: We investigated frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) responses to image sequences previously annotated with valence and arousal ratings. Twenty-four participants viewed image sequences in VR with known valence and arousal values while their brain activity was recorded. Participants wore the Oculus Quest VR headset and viewed image sequences while immersed in a virtual reality theater environment.Results: Image sequences with higher valence ratings elicited greater FAA scores than image sequences with lower valence ratings (F [1, 23] = 4.631, p = 0.042), while image sequences with higher arousal scores elicited lower FAA scores than image sequences with low arousal (F [1, 23] = 7.143, p = 0.014). The effect of valence on alpha power did not reach statistical significance (F [1, 23] = 4.170, p = 0.053). We determined that only the high valence, low arousal image sequence elicited FAA which was significantly higher than FAA recorded during baseline (t [23] = −3.166, p = 0.002), suggesting that this image sequence was the most salient for participants.Conclusion: Image sequences with higher valence, and lower arousal may lead to greater FAA responses in VR experiences. While findings suggest that FAA data may be useful in understanding associations between valence and arousal self-reported data and brain activity responses elicited from affective experiences in VR environments, additional research concerning individual differences in affective processing may be informative for the development of affective VR scenarios

Exploring Human Responses to a Virtual Character

How does haptic feedback during human-virtual character interaction affect participant physiological responses in virtual reality? In this between-subjects study, haptic feedback and non-haptic feedback conditions in which virtual characters bump into the participant who is immersed in a virtual environment are compared. A questionnaire was developed to determine the influence of haptic feedback on presence, embodiment, positive and negative affect, interaction with virtual character, and haptic feedback realism, among other more exploratory concepts. These exploratory variables include engagement, flow, comfort with virtual characters, comfort with virtual characters’ appearance, realism of virtual character interaction, realism of haptic feedback, and virtual reality sickness. Physiological data was collected using galvanic skin response (GSR) to investigate the influence of haptic feedback on physiological arousal during human-virtual character interaction. Five conditions were developed (no haptic feedback, full and half intensity, incorrect position, and delayed timing). Significant differences were found in embodiment, realism of virtual character interaction, haptic feedback realism, and GSR amplitude after the first interaction with the virtual character. These results may inform future virtual reality studies that investigate haptic feedback during human-virtual character interaction, arousal via GSR data, as well as advise studies that seek to correlate self-report responses with physiological data

Affective Image Sequence Viewing in Virtual Reality Theater Environment: Frontal Alpha Asymmetry Responses From Mobile EEG

Background: Numerous studies have investigated emotion in virtual reality (VR) experiences using self-reported data in order to understand valence and arousal dimensions of emotion. Objective physiological data concerning valence and arousal has been less explored. Electroencephalography (EEG) can be used to examine correlates of emotional responses such as valence and arousal in virtual reality environments. Used across varying fields of research, images are able to elicit a range of affective responses from viewers. In this study, we display image sequences with annotated valence and arousal values on a screen within a virtual reality theater environment. Understanding how brain activity responses are related to affective stimuli with known valence and arousal ratings may contribute to a better understanding of affective processing in virtual reality. Methods: We investigated frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) responses to image sequences previously annotated with valence and arousal ratings. Twenty-four participants viewed image sequences in VR with known valence and arousal values while their brain activity was recorded. Participants wore the Oculus Quest VR headset and viewed image sequences while immersed in a virtual reality theater environment. Results: Image sequences with higher valence ratings elicited greater FAA scores than image sequences with lower valence ratings (F [1, 23] = 4.631, p = 0.042), while image sequences with higher arousal scores elicited lower FAA scores than image sequences with low arousal (F [1, 23] = 7.143, p = 0.014). The effect of valence on alpha power did not reach statistical significance (F [1, 23] = 4.170, p = 0.053). We determined that only the high valence, low arousal image sequence elicited FAA which was significantly higher than FAA recorded during baseline (t [23] = −3.166, p = 0.002), suggesting that this image sequence was the most salient for participants. Conclusion: Image sequences with higher valence, and lower arousal may lead to greater FAA responses in VR experiences. While findings suggest that FAA data may be useful in understanding associations between valence and arousal self-reported data and brain activity responses elicited from affective experiences in VR environments, additional research concerning individual differences in affective processing may be informative for the development of affective VR scenarios

Characterization and closed-loop control of infrared thalamocortical stimulation produces spatially constrained single-unit responses

Data for Coventry et al PNAS Nexus 2024 DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae08

Experiencing schizophrenia symptoms through augmented reality: from assessing students needs to prototyping a simulation

International audienceBackground: The stigma of schizophrenia, in addition to being present among mental health professionals (for a review see Valery and Prouteau, 2020), is already present among students (Sideli et al., 2021) and even associated with the level of clinical experience (Fernandes, 2022). There are a whole host of technological interventions to train professionals: they have shown contradictory results, particularly in terms of impact on stigma (for a review see Rodriguez-Rivas et al., 2022 ; Tay et al., 2023). Some have actually proven counterproductive, increasing the desire of subjects for social distance from those with schizophrenia (Brown, 2020 ; Morgan et al., 2018 ; Rodriguez-Rivas et al., 2022 ; Silva et al., 2017). Rodriguez-Rivas et al. (2022) argue that these negative outcomes may be explained by the focus of the interventions on symptoms rather than the recovery process, which may increase stereotypes and prejudice. Moreover, it has been suggested that they should be used with caution and ideally in combination with educational or contact interventions (Ando et al., 2011). We aim at developing an augmented reality (AR) intervention for training mental health students. Nonetheless, there is no data on French mental health students' training needs. Our objectives were i) to explore the training needs of mental health students for an AR instrument and ii) to use this data to prototype a unique AR simulation of schizophrenia symptoms for training purposes.Methods: A mixed participatory approach (qualitative and quantitative) was used to analyze students' needs and comprised two stages.Following Traynor (2015) methodology, a focus group of N=6 psychology students was organized to identify i) the relevance of a survey on the training needs of health students and ii) create the survey content. A thematic analysis of the transcript was then carried out using QDA Miner Lite. Finally, items for a survey were generated with the focus group on the basis of the thematic analysis results. The resulting questionnaire comprised 20 questions divided into 5 categories: "satisfaction with mental health training and the role of clinical practice", "legitimacy", "satisfaction with schizophrenia training", "AR tool" and "suggestions and information". It was distributed via LimeSurvey to health and social work students at University of Bordeaux. We received and analyzed 288 responses. Results: Almost 70% (69.4%) of the sample were moderately or not at all satisfied with the information they received on schizophrenia during their initial training course. Almost 90% (88.5%) of the sample were interested in an AR simulation of the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Participants also described how they thought the simulation should be implemented: preferably in small groups (80.2%), preceded by theoretical course and a post-intervention debriefing (86.8%), with third and first person symptom’s visualization (73.3%) and retracing different moments in the life of a person with schizophrenia (49.7%).This, with the basis of the scientific literature, enabled us to develop the AR prototype. It is a simulation of different symptoms of schizophrenia (auditory hallucinations, anhedonia, delusions, etc.) in different life contexts (school work, telephone conversations, etc.). The poster will contain images and concrete examples of the content of the simulation.Discussion: This study enabled us to obtain, create and design an AR prototype to simulate the symptoms of schizophrenia. This prototype was built not only on the basis of the scientific literature, i.e. what works best to educate and destigmatize, but also on the basis of the actual needs of the students who will be involved in this training. Future research will focus on testing the simulation in terms of training and destigmatizing efficacy