Specifity of complex sensory-motor reaction to relevant stimuli in personalized virtual reality in young people

Objectives – to evaluate the latent period of complex sensory-motor reaction (СSMR) to relevant visual stimuli in virtual reality (VR) with personalized and indifferent content.

Material and methods. The study included 10 healthy right-handed males aged 18–19. The selection of subjects in groups was based on two VR scenarios, the content of which reflected (personalized VR) or did not reflect their personal experience (indifferent VR). The latent period of СSMR to relevant visual stimuli was registered using a gamepad and an EEG recording system (BP-010302 BrainAmp Standart 128) in the oddball paradigm. VR scenarios were demonstrated using Oculus Rift CV1 headset. Registration of СSMR in personalized and indifferent VRs was done in three sessions with the interval of 24 hours. Each session lasted 7–8 minutes and included 30–40 СSMR registrations. Igroup Presence Questionnaire (IPQ) was used for subjective evaluation of VR immersiveness. The collected data was processed with IBM SPSS Statistics 22 software.

Results. Statistically significant correlations were registered only in VR with personalized content, between the latent time of СSMR and indexes of spatial presence (0.694522) and a general effect of VR immersiveness (-0.592243). It was noted that latent period of СSMR to relevant visual stimuli in VR is determined by the semantic content: the time of СSMR to relevant stimuli in personalized VR was significantly less, than to those in indifferent VR.

Conclusion. We support the adequacy of the methodology of studying the mechanisms of human voluntary attention with inclusion of personalized scenes in VR content. It is suggested that such methodology is promising for neurorehabilitation of patients with age-related cognitive impairment