Yekani Milad, Tehrani-Doost Mehdi, Rahimi Milad, Vahabie Abdol-Hossein
Department of Neuroscience and Addiction Studies, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Cognitive Systems Laboratory, Control and Intelligent Processing Center of Excellence (CIPCE), School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
Basic Clin Neurosci. 2024 May-Jun;15(3):383-392. doi: 10.32598/bcn.2022.4697.1. Epub 2024 May 1.
This study introduces a new method to create virtual reality (VR) environments for studying synchrony in human body movements and their prosocial effects. Previous studies have shown the positive effects of synchrony, but more controlled and ecologically valid paradigms are needed to explore these effects deeper and translate them to the therapeutic domain.
A total of 82 healthy subjects participated in this study. They performed simple periodic hand movements in a virtual environment with a virtual character (VC) mimicking them. We used inverse kinematics (IKs) to create character movements. The VCs mimic the participants after a short delay in the synchronous group and after a great delay in the nonsynchronous group. The subjective feeling of synchrony and social closeness was measured using a set of rating questionnaires.
The participants in the synchronous group reported more synchrony than the nonsynchronous group. The degree of social closeness between the two groups was not significantly different; however, there was a significant positive correlation between the reported degree of synchrony and social closeness within each group.
Using a simple VR environment in which body movements are simulated by IKs can engender the feeling of synchrony and exert its prosocial effects.
本研究介绍了一种创建虚拟现实（VR）环境的新方法，用于研究人体运动的同步性及其亲社会效应。先前的研究已经表明了同步性的积极影响，但需要更具控制性和生态效度的范式来更深入地探索这些效应，并将其应用于治疗领域。
共有82名健康受试者参与了本研究。他们在一个虚拟环境中进行简单的周期性手部动作，有一个虚拟角色（VC）模仿他们的动作。我们使用逆运动学（IKs）来创建角色动作。在同步组中，虚拟角色在短暂延迟后模仿参与者；在非同步组中，虚拟角色在长时间延迟后模仿参与者。使用一组评分问卷来测量同步性和社会亲近感的主观感受。
同步组的参与者报告的同步性高于非同步组。两组之间的社会亲近程度没有显著差异；然而，每组中报告的同步程度与社会亲近感之间存在显著的正相关。
使用一种简单的VR环境，其中通过逆运动学模拟身体动作，可以产生同步感并发挥其亲社会效应。
