Brain Connectivity Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience and Neurorehabilitation, IRCCS San Raffaele Roma, Via Val Cannuta, 247, 00166, Rome, Italy.
Department of Theoretical and Applied Sciences, eCampus University, Novedrate, Como, Italy.
Pflugers Arch. 2024 Nov;476(11):1727-1742. doi: 10.1007/s00424-024-03008-w. Epub 2024 Aug 19.
Virtual reality (VR) allows to create controlled scenarios in which the quantity of stimuli can be modulated, as happen in real-life, where humans are subjected to various multisensory-often overlapping-stimuli. The present research aimed to study changes in attentional processes within an auditory oddball paradigm during a virtual exploration, while varying the amount of distractors. Twenty healthy volunteers underwent electroencephalography (EEG) during three different experimental conditions: an auditory oddball without VR (No-VR condition), an auditory oddball during VR exploration without distractors (VR-Empty condition), and an auditory oddball during VR exploration with a high level of distractors (VR-Full condition). Event-related potentials (ERPs) were computed averaging epochs of EEGs and analyzing peaks at 100 ms (N100) and 300 ms (P300) latencies. Results showed modulation of N100 amplitude in Fz and of P300 amplitude in Pz. Statistically significant differences in latency were observed only for P300 where the latency results delayed from the No-VR to VR-Full. The scalp topography revealed for P100 no significant differences between frequent and rare stimuli in either the No-VR and VR-Empty conditions. However, significant results were found in N100 in VR-Full condition. For P300, results showed differences between frequent and rare stimuli, in every condition. However, this difference is gradually less widespread from No-VR condition to the VR-Full. The emerging integration of VR with EEG may have important implications for studying brain attentional processing.
虚拟现实（VR）允许创建可控制的场景，其中刺激的数量可以像人类在现实生活中受到各种多感官——通常是重叠的刺激时那样进行调节。本研究旨在研究在虚拟探索过程中，听觉Oddball 范式中注意力过程的变化，同时改变分心物的数量。二十名健康志愿者在三种不同的实验条件下接受了脑电图（EEG）：无 VR 的听觉 Oddball（无 VR 条件）、无分心物的 VR 探索期间的听觉 Oddball（VR-Empty 条件）和有高量分心物的 VR 探索期间的听觉 Oddball（VR-Full 条件）。计算了事件相关电位（ERP），通过对 EEG 进行平均，并分析了 100ms（N100）和 300ms（P300）潜伏期的峰值。结果显示，在 Fz 中 N100 振幅和在 Pz 中 P300 振幅发生调制。仅在 P300 中观察到潜伏期的统计学显著差异，其中从无 VR 到 VR-Full 的潜伏期延迟。头皮地形图显示，在 No-VR 和 VR-Empty 条件下，对于 P100，频繁和罕见刺激之间没有明显差异。然而，在 VR-Full 条件下，在 N100 中发现了显著的结果。对于 P300，在每个条件下，都显示了频繁和罕见刺激之间的差异。然而，这种差异从 No-VR 条件到 VR-Full 条件逐渐变得不那么广泛。将 VR 与 EEG 相结合可能对研究大脑注意力处理具有重要意义。
